Jharkhand Police arrest two in Dhanbad judge death case, SIT begins probe
New Delhi, July 30
Following the Jharkhand High Court's order on a an SIT probe into the death of Dhanbad judge Uttam Anand, two have been arrested in the case.
The CCTV footages showed that Anand, a district and sessions judge of Dhanbad court, was jogging on one side of a fairly wide road at Randhir Verma Chowk early on Wednesday when a heavy auto-rickshaw veered towards him, hit him from behind and fled the scene.
Anand hailed from Hazaribag and his father and wife are lawyers. He had taken over as Dhanbad judge only six months ago after his transfer from Bokaro.
The Dhanbad police said that two persons have been arrested in this connection so far.
The accused have been identified as Kakhan Verma and Rahul Verma from Digwadhi Dhanbad from a Dhanbad tempo stand while another was held from Giridhi.
Another auto-rickshaw driver found him lying in a pool of blood and took to him to a nearby hospital, where the doctors declared him dead on arrival.
The police have also recovered the auto rickshaw which was found to registered in the name of a woman.
The SIT has been formed under the leadership of Additional Director General of Police Sanjay Latkar, to look into the matter.
Anand had recently denied bail to a few gangsters held by Dhanbad Police.The proceedings in Ranjay murder case was going on in judge Uttam Anand's court. It is alleged that three days before his death, he had denied bail to gangsters Ravi Thakur and Anand Varma who allegedly belong to the gangs of Abhinav Singh and Aman Singh.
Taking cognizance of a letter filed before the court by the Dhanbad principal district judge in the case, Chief Justice Ravi Ranjan converted it into a writ petition, and ordered the formation of a
The court said it will monitor the probe and sought updates from the SIT from time to time.
Jharkhand Director General of Police Neeraj Sinha, during the hearing of the case, assured the court that the investigation would be carried out in a professional manner and suggested the name of Sanjay Lautkar as the head of the SIT.
The court also stated that at any point in time it appears to the court that the investigation is not heading in the right direction, then the case will be handed over to the CBI.
Senior advocate Vikas Singh, who is also the president of Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) expressed that the case must be entrusted to the CBI as the killing of a judicial officer, apparently for not granting bail to a gangster, is an assault on the judicial system.
Meanwhile, SC sought a report from Jharkhand DGP Niraj Sinha and Chief Secretary Sukhdev Singh within a week on this case.
