The CBI joint director Sharad Agrawal on Thursday informed the Jharkhand High Court that Additional District and Sessions Judge of Dhanbad, Uttam Anand, was deliberately hit by the auto-rickshaw leading to his death. However, the motive of the murder is not confirmed yet. The CBI further informed the court that the agency is investigating whether accused auto driver Lakhan Verma and his friend Rahul Verma were asked by somebody to hit the judge.
Analysing the recreated crime scene, CCTV footage, and forensic evidence suggested that the incident was not an accident and the judge was deliberately hit, the CBI has concluded. The agency said that it is probing to ascertain the motive behind the murder.
Sharad Agrawal, who was summoned by the court to explain the progress made in this case, further informed the Bench of Chief Justice Dr. Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujeet Narayan Prasad that the CBI is making all efforts to investigate the judge murder case.
On this, the High Court made an oral observation that the murder of the judicial officer has lowered the morale of judicial officers. The High court further observed that if this murder case is not solved soon it will not be good for the judicial system of the country as it was for the first time when a judge died in this way.
Notably, in the previous hearing, the court had expressed displeasure as the CBI was unable to make any progress. The court had summoned CBI joint director for a physical appearance and had slammed the CBI for furnishing stereotyped progress reports.
The court had expressed displeasure that the agency could not move an inch beyond two accused persons Lakhan Verma and Rahul Verma who are already in judicial custody. The court had questioned whether these accused had any motive to kill the judge.
The CBI also conducted narco tests upon them and further interrogated them in police custody. They accepted that they intentionally hit the judge on the morning of July 28 near Randhir Chowk in Dhanbad district when the judge was returning home after a morning walk.
But they tried to convince the CBI that they hit the judge to snatch valuable items from his possession believing he (judge) must be carrying a mobile phone and wallet. Accused said that they fled away after they saw some bikers.
Investigation revealed that the accused had stolen an auto-rickshaw (JH 10R 0461) besides three mobile phones.
