NE LEGAL BUREAU
NEW DELHI, AUG 5
Jharkhand government has told the Supreme Court that in view of the “gravity” and “seriousness of the matter”, it has decided to hand over to CBI, the investigation into mowing down of a judge at Dhanbad and the agency has started the probe after registering the case.
It said that the state will extend full cooperation to the CBI in the investigation of the case involving the unfortunate death of district and additional session judge Uttam Anand.
“That pursuant to the transfer of the investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation, CBI case number dated August 4 has been registered for investigation and the investigation of the case has been taken over by CBI, New Delhi,” the status report of the state government said.
In a join status report of Jharkhand Chief Secretary Sukhdev Singh and Director General of Police Neeraj Sinha, through advocate Pallavi Langar in the top court, the state government said that the deceased judicial officer had been provided with a personal security officer, who at the relevant time was Constable Saurabh Saw.
The status report filed by Additional Advocate General Arunabh Chowdhury has been filed in the suo motu case taken by the Supreme Court on safeguarding courts and protecting judges after the Dhanbad incident.
The matter is scheduled to be heard on Friday by a bench headed by chief justice NV Ramana.
“The state government of Jharkhand has now made arrangements for deploying additional security (consisting of one police officer, one Hawaldar and four armed constable) in the residential colonies of judicial officers in all the districts of the state,” the report said.
On the investigation of the case, the state government said that pursuant to the direction of High Court on July 29, it had constituted a 22-member Special Investigation Team headed by ADGP Sanjay Anand Lathkar to investigate the matter.
It said that on July 28, at around 9am a missing report of then ADJ Uttam Anand was orally given to Dhanbad police station by his bodyguard Saurabh Saw and as per the report the deceased judge had gone out for regular morning walk and had not returned to his home.
The status report said that ASP, Law and Order, Dhanbad had later directed the Officer in-charge of Dhanbad police station to proceed to SNM medical college and Hospital to verify the reports of an injured person being admitted there.
“By that time judicial officers from Dhanbad civil court started reaching the SNM Medical College and Hospital on their own and it became clear that the injured person was none other than ADJ Uttam Anand, who had unfortunately passed away by that time,” it said, adding that one passer by Pawan Kumar Pandey had taken the deceased to the hospital at 5.30am.
The status report said that thereafter CCTV footage were analysed and prima facie on verification of footage indicated that there appeared to be some deliberate act of hitting and subsequent death of the ADJ.
It said in post mortem of the deceased conducted by a medical board under videography and it was opined that injuries were caused by hard and blunt substance and the death was caused due to head injury.
“That subsequently the police were able to trace and locate the three-wheeler which was involved in the incident and two persons namely Rahul Kumar Verma and Lakhan Kumar Verma were apprehended on July 29 at around 2.30 pm from railway station, Dhanbad and around 4 am from Giridih respectively and they were taken into custody and interrogated.
The accused were sent to judicial custody on July 29 and later court was pleased to grant five-days of police remand for their further investigation.
It said forensic examination of the vehicle, fingerprints examination and recreation of the crime scene along with photography and videography was done.
“That it is stated that prayer has been made to the trial court for allowing the conduct of suspect detection test, layered voice analysis, brain electrical oscillation signature profiling, Narco Analysis Test in accordance with law,” it said.
The report said that all the efforts are being made to unearth the larger conspiracy, if any, behind the commission of the crime resulting in the unfortunate death of ADJ Uttam Anand.
It said that the statement of owner of seized three wheeler has been recorded in which she has stated that her vehicle was stolen at night hours of July 27/28 and she had gone to the concerned police station for lodging an FIR but it was not registered by then officer in-charge Umesh Manjhi, who has been placed under suspension for dereliction of his duty.
The report said that investigation has revealed that the apprehended accused Rahul Verma and husband of the owner of the three-wheeler have criminal antecedents and the probe has revealed that the accused driving the auto in the date and time of occurrence did not possess a valid driving license.
On July 30, the top court had taken suo motu cognizance of the “unfortunate” “sad demise” of a judge in “gruesome incident” of being allegedly mowed down by a vehicle while on morning jog on July 28 at Dhanbad and sought a status report within a week from Jharkhand’s Chief Secretary and the DGP on probe, saying reports and video clippings suggested “it was not a case of simpliciter road accident.”
“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 simpliciter road accident,” it had said.
