The Jharkhand High Court has reserved its order in the criminal appeal filed by Rahul Verma and Lakhan Verma, who were convicted for the murder of Dhanbad Judge Uttam Anand. The incident occurred on July 28, 2021, when an autorickshaw hit Anand during his morning walk.
Anand, the 49-year-old judge, was allegedly mowed down by an auto-rickshaw while he was jogging on July 28 last year.
The Jharkhand government had set up a Special Investigation Team to crack the judge's death case, which triggered a nationwide outrage.
The 49-year-old district judge was allegedly mowed down by a heavy autorickshaw while he was out jogging near Randhir Verma Chowk in Dhanbad on the morning of July 28.
According to sources in the Dhanbad court, Anand, known to be strict judge, had recently declined bail pleas of some gangsters, and the incident could be a fallout of this decision.
The 49-year-old judge was allegedly mowed down by a heavy autorickshaw while he was on morning jog on July 28 morning in Dhanbad.
CCTV footage showed that the judge was jogging on one side of a fairly wide road at Randhir Verma Chowk when a heavy auto-rickshaw veered towards him, hit him from behind and fled. Doctors at hospital declared him brought dead.
The HC said that when the auto-driver and his accomplice knew that Anand was a judge before hitting him, how could the CBI come up with the theory of murder for robbing a mobile phone?
A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana said the Jharkhand high court would keep monitoring the probe.
"There is no freedom to the judges to even file a complaint," a bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justice Surya Kant said, adding that police or the CBI is not helping the judiciary if such complaints are filed.
Several trains were cancelled, highways and key roads blocked and many thousands stranded for hours on Monday as a nationwide 10-hour shutdown against the Centre's three agri laws disrupted lives across parts of India, particularly in the north.
