Dhanbad judge’s death to be investigated by CBI, says Jharkhand chief minister
Two suspects, who had been arrested, have confessed to the crime, the police said.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Saturday recommended a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the death of a judge in Dhanbad.
Additional sessions judge, Uttam Anand, was killed on July 28 in an alleged hit-and-run incident that was caught on closed circuit television, commonly known as CCTV, cameras.
The footage showed the autorickshaw suddenly swerving towards Anand while he was jogging on the side of a wide, empty road. The driver of the vehicle hit the judge and drove away.
Soren’s decision to hand over the case to the CBI came a day after the Jharkhand High Court directed a Special Investigation Team looking into the matter, and to submit its report by August 3.
The Supreme Court, which took suo motu cognisance of the matter on July 30, has also observed that the case has “wider ramifications” on the protection and security of judges.
The police have registered a murder case and formed a Special Investigation Team to look into the judge’s death. They have also arrested the driver of the autorickshaw and his associate.
Jharkhand Inspector General of Police (Operations) Amol V Homkar said that those arrested had been identified as Lakhan Kumar Verma and Rahul Verma. Both of them have confessed to the crime and the autorickshaw has also been seized from their possession, Homkar told the Hindustan Times.
Anand had been hearing the murder case of Ranjay Singh, who was a close confidante of former Jharia MLA Sanjiv Singh. Three days before his death, the judge had denied bail to Ravi Thakur, a protégé of infamous Uttar Pradesh shooter Abhinav Singh and Aman Singh.