Khand CJ to weekly monitor BI probe into judge’s death

The Supreme Court day said the Jharkhand

Court Chief Justice will itor weekly the progress e in the CBI probe into the ed mowing down of a judge vehicle on July 28 in Dhanand observed that the ed cover report of the cenagency did not contain h details. bench of Chief Justice N V ana and justices Vineet n and Surya Kant asked the o file its report weekly with igh court where the bench ded by the Chief Justice ld monitor it. he top court had on July 30 n suo motu cognizance of unfortunate” “sad demise” e judge in “gruesome inci” and had sought a status rt within a week from khand’s Chief Secretary and DGP on probe. hanbad additional district e Uttam Anand died after as hit by an auto-rickshaw e on a morning walk on 28. The Jharkhand police

arrested two persons, han Verma and Rahul ma, who were driving the cle they had allegedly ston high court had taken suo motu cognisance of the incident last week after CCTV footage of the hit-and-run incident showed the three-wheeler deliberately swerving on an empty road to knock down the judge.

The auto-rickshaw used in the incident was allegedly stolen from Dhanbad and later recovered from the neighbouring Giridih district.

The bench of Chief Justice NV Ramana and justice Surya Kant sought a complete report on the case from the Jharkhand chief secretary and the director general of police in a week.

Registering the suo motu case as ‘In Re: Safeguarding Courts and Protecting Judges (Death of Additional Sessions Judge, Dhanbad)’, the court termed the incident “unfortunate”, adding: “This gruesome incident has been widely reported in newspapers, and video clippings of the incident are also being circulated on social media platforms, suggesting that it was not a case of simplicitor road accident.”

On Sunday, sleuths of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), probing the hit and run case leading to the death of Dhanbad district and sessions judge Uttam Anand last month, recreated the ‘accident’ scene once again, within a gap of around 17 hours. A CBI team reached the spot along with the auto-rickshaw involved in the incident and the two accused its driver Lakhand Verma and his associate Rahul Verma - at Randhir Verma Chowk, the spot of the ‘accident’, at 5 am when it had taken place on July 28, a police official said.

Members of the probe agency had also recreated the scene taking with them the two accused and the vehicle on Saturday afternoon. They had investigated for about four hours at the spot with experts of Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) and collected evidence.

During recreation of the scene on Sunday, the fourth day of the CBI’S probe, one person stood at the exact spot where the judge had been hit while Lakhan and Rahul were asked to drive the auto-rickshaw towards him, the police official said.