Dhanbad Judge death case: Four CBI teams reach Jharkhand, collect Uttam Anand case docs

Four teams of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) reached Jharkhand on Thursday to collect the documents from a local police station in the case related to the suspicious death of Additional District Judge Uttam Anand. The CBI has registered an FIR in the case following the Jharkhand High Court order of transferring the case to the investigative agency.

The filed FIR read: “The case is re-registered in CBI SC-I, New Delhi on 4.8.2021 in pursuance of the notification… dated 30.7.2021 issued by the State Government. Accordingly, investigation of case FIR no. 300/2021 dated 28.7.2021 under section 302 of Dhanbad PS is taken up by re-registering the same as this regular case.” The FIR further outlined that Vijay Kumar Shukla, Additional Superintendent of Police, CBI, is the investigating officer of the case.

In the said case, Uttam Anand, an Additional District Judge, was knocked down by an autorickshaw in the magistrate colony on July 28. The incident caught on CCTV makes for highly suspicious viewing, in which the vehicle in question appears to swerve towards the judge on a visibly empty road. 

The autopsy report of Anand stated that he died of a head injury. He sustained three injuries in form of abrasions and seven internal injuries. All these injuries are antemortem, caused by hard and blunt substances, it added. 

Dhanbad Judge's death: Investigation so far

So far the Jharkhand Police, which had formed a Special Investigative Team (SIT) for probing the matter, has seized the auto which was allegedly used for the crime. It has also arrested two main accused, identified as Lakhan Kumar Verma and Rahul Verma. The duo has confessed to the crime, said Amol Vinukant Homkar, Inspector General (Ops). 

Meanwhile, 17 others in the course of searches across 53 hotels in the state have been arrested while 243 old, listed criminals have been detained and interrogated on grounds of suspicion.  Also, one sub-inspector, and one in charge of the Pathardih station who allegedly circulated the CCTV footage in which the auto is seen hitting the deceased Judge has been put under suspension, as per Dhanbad SSP Sanjeev Kumar.