Dhanbad (Jharkhand): In a major development, the Dhanbad Police have arrested an auto driver along with another person in connection with the death of Dhanbad District and Sessions Judge Uttam Anand. The judge, who had met with an accident on Wednesday during morning walk, succumbed to his injuries at Shaheed Nirmal Mahto Medical College and hospital (SNMMCH). Though initially, it was believed to be a case of hit and run, the CCTV footage of the incident clearly shows an auto knocking him down, suggesting foul-play.
The matter was also raised in Supreme Court by lawyer Vikas Singh, President of the SC BAR Association who demanded a CBI probe into the incident. Replying to this, the Chief Justice of India informed Singh that the case has been taken up by Jharkhand High Court. It is known that Chief Justice Ravi Ranjan of the Jharkhand High Court has taken a suo motu cognizance of the Dhanbad judge's death. On the other hand, family members and judges met the Jharkhand DIG alleging that Uttam Anand was murdered.
Read:| Dhanbad judge dies in road accident, police suspect murder
On Wednesday, police said Anand was jogging towards Golf Ground from his residence at Randhir Verma Chowk when the accident took place. As he did not return home for several hours, Anand's family informed the police. A hunt was launched and police received information about an unclaimed dead body in SNMMCH, following which Anand's bodyguard had identified the body.
Anand was hearing the famous murder case of coal mafia kingpin Ranjay Singh, who was a close aide of Sanjeev Singh, former MLA of Jharia. According to reports, Anand had recently rejected the bail plea of shooter Abhinav Singh and Ravi Thakur, the two accused in the case. Following this, police are speculating the incident as a murder and a probe has been launched in this direction.
Justice Uttam Anand was appointed as Dhanbad District and Sessions Judge six months ago. He was earlier the District and Sessions Judge of Bokaro.
Meanwhile, Jharkhand Police headquarters constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) under ADG Campaign Sanjay Anand Latkar to probe Uttam Anand death case. The SIT will include top police officials including Bokaro DIG and Dhanbad SSP. Following the directions of the Jharkhand High Court, a high-level meeting headed by DGP Neeraj Sinha was held at the Jharkhand Police Headquarters on Thursday. Many prominent officers including ADG Special Branch, ADG Campaign, IG Campaign were present during the meeting.
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During the meeting, it was decided that SIT team and Dhanbad Police will jointly probe the case. Jharkhand Police spokesperson IG Campaign Amol V Homkar informed that a high-level committee has been constituted to investigate the murder case of Judge Uttam Anand. Amol V Homkar said that Dhanbad police have arrested two people in connection with the case.
"The two arrested men have been identified Lakhan Kumar Verma and Rahul Verma. Lakhan Kumar Verma has been arrested from Giridih district while Rahul Verma has been arrested from Dhanbad railway station. The auto has also been recovered from Giridih," IG Campaign said.
During interrogation, Lakhan Kumar confessed that he was driving the auto and deliberately hit Judge Uttam Anand but the reason behind the crime is yet to be known, he added. Police are questioning the two accused. They revealed that the auto was stolen from Dhanbad, Homkar said.
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