HC takes serious view, SIT starts investigations
Ranchi: A state police team has arrested two persons in connection with the suspected killing of Dhanbad ADJ Uttam Anand on Wednesday. The two accused Lakhan Verma and his associate Rahul Verma were arrested Thursday morning.
According to sources, Lakhan Verma has admitted before police that he was driving the auto rickshaw and it was he who had hit the deceased judge.
However, it is not clear yet as to what was the motive behind hitting the judge from behind. Police team is still interrogating the two accused.
The police team has also learnt during interrogation that the auto rickshaw was stolen from Dhanbad.
Meanwhile, the Jharkhand police have formed an SIT. The SIT team is being led by Sanjay Anand Latkar and includes Bokaro DIG and SSP Dhanbad.
The team has already started investigating the case.
It may be mentioned here that the ADJ of Dhanbad Uttam Anand was on morning walk Wednesday morning when an auto rickshaw hit him from behind. He fell on the road. The passersby took him to Shaheed Nirmal Mahato Medical College & Hospital, where he was declared brought dead.
Later, the police formed an SIT to probe the case.
Meanwhile, the Ranchi High Court has taken a sub motu cognisance of the alleged killing of Dhanbad ADJ. It took a serious view of the suspected killing of Dhanbad ADJ Uttam Anand.
The HC bench converted the suspected killing of Dhanbad ADJ Uttam Anand into a Public Interest petition. The bench of Chief Justice Dr. Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad today remarked that this is not a hit and run case, but a case of brutal murder.
The HC bench made this scathing remark during a hearing through video conferencing.
The bench observed that the CCTV footage makes it clear that this is a case of brutal murder.
This murder of a highly placed judicial official amounts to an attack on the judiciary. There cannot be anything more sensitive than this. The court feels that the state police won’t be able to do justice to investigations and the court would like to hand over the case to CBI. The court wants that the conspirators too are caught and they are exposed.
The bench also expressed unhappiness at the fact that the CCTV footage has gone viral. It wanted to know how the footage went viral when the control of the CCTV was with the police.
The CCTV footage was all over the social media and almost all media channels were carrying it, while the topic sparked off a hot discussion.
The court said that the case would be monitored and an impartial probe in a professional manner would be ensured.
On the assurance of the DGP, the court handed over the responsibility of investigations to the SIT.
The court also directed that Sanjay Latkar be made the head of the SIT team and said that if the court feels that there is any laxity in the investigation, it would hand over the case to the CBI.
The bench also expressed dissatisfaction at the investigations carried out by the police.
The bench also remarked that recently a police officer was killed in the state and then an advocate Manoj Jha was killed and now a judge has died amid suspicious circumstances. It wondered whether one would not conclude adversely about the law and order situation in Jharkhand.
The Advocate General Rajiv Ranjan informed the court that FIR has been filed and SIT has started the probe. The tempo has been seized and two persons have been arrested including the driver. The case is being investigated and no one would be spared in the case.
ASGI Rajiv Sinha told the bench that CBI is ready to investigate the case and if the court so wants, the CBI would take up the case and start investigations.
Earlier, the HC took up the report of Chief District Judge seriously and turned that into a Public Interest Petition. The Dhanbad SSP also attended the hearing through video conference.
