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Seems Dhanbad judge was intentionally hit by auto: CBI tells Jharkhand court
Dhanbad additional district judge Uttam Anand was brought dead to the hospital on July 28, about an hour after he was hit by the auto rickshaw outside magistrate colony near Randhir Verma square in Dhanbad when he was out for his routine morning walk.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday informed the Jharkhand High Court that the Dhanbad additional district judge killed in July after being run over by an auto-rickshaw was “apparently hit intentionally” and the central agency was probing all possible angles to unravel the conspiracy behind it.
Appearing before the division bench of Chief Justice Dr. Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad, CBI zonal director Sharad Agrawal informed the court that the death of Judge Uttam Anand was not an accident and submitted the weekly probe report as directed by the court.
A person who participated in the court hearing said the zonal director informed the court that based on interrogation of the accused and scientific investigation it seems that the judge was hit intentionally, but they are yet to get concrete evidence..
Reacting to the revelations, the court directed the CBI not to waste time and investigate the crime thoroughly as any time lost would be detrimental for investigation besides questioning the probe agency about why they have not been able to move beyond the two arrested occupants of the auto rickshaw involved in the alleged crime.
“The CBI officer informed the court that one of the two arrested persons (Lakhan Verma) also has a previous criminal record of mobile theft and he has been trying to mislead the agency by shifting his stand. The agency is interrogating the two accused for a breakthrough,” a person aware of the development said.
Dhanbad additional district judge Uttam Anand was brought dead to the hospital on July 28, about an hour after he was hit by the auto rickshaw outside magistrate colony near Randhir Verma square in Dhanbad when he was out for his routine morning walk.
The two occupants of the three-wheeler, Lakhan Verma and Rahul Verma, were arrested and the vehicle recovered by Jharkhand police after CCTV footage from the location showed that the vehicle seemingly swerved deliberately to hit the judge from behind.
Both the Supreme Court and the Jharkhand High Court took suo-motu cognisance of the incident. The CBI took over the investigation from the SIT headed by an ADG rank officer of Jharkhand Police at the state government’s insistence. The HC has directed the central agency to provide a probe status report to the court every week.
