HC raps CBI over lack of progress in probe

RANCHI: Investigation into the death of Dhanbad additional sessions judge Uttam Anand on July 28 has not proceeded beyond the initial arrests, the Jharkhand high court said on Thursday, expressing its dissatisfaction over the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) pace of inquiry.

A division bench of chief justice Dr Ravi Ranjan and justice Sujit Narayan Prasad also criticised the lack of manpower at the Forensic Sciences Laboratory (FSL) and ordered the state home secretary and the FSL director to appear before it on the next date of hearing.

Hearing the public interest litigation (PIL) initiated to monitor the probe, the bench said the footage of the incident clearly shows that the auto-rickshaw driver went out of his lane and hit the judge. Even if the driver was inebriated, his intent is clear from the footage, it added.

The CCTV footage of the incident shows the judge jogging on one side of a fairly wide road at Randhir Verma Chowk near the district court early on July 28, when an auto-rickshaw veered towards him, hit him from behind, and fled the scene. Some locals found him lying in a pool of blood and took him to a hospital, where he was declared dead.

According to a July 29 FIR, Sugani Devi, 44, stated that her auto-rickshaw with registration number JH10R-0461 was stolen on July 17 by unknown people. The same vehicle was used, allegedly by the two accused, to deliberately hit the judge.

Dhanbad police seized the vehicle and arrested the autorickshaw driver Lakhan Verma and his assistant Rahul Verma.