Ranchi: The Jharkhand high court on Friday, January 7 reprimanded the CBI yet again for the tardy progress of the probe into the murder of Dhanbad judge, Uttam Anand and directed it to file an affidavit on the new developments in the investigation.
Seeking time to come out with “new facts”, the CBI told a division bench of the high court that it had questioned as many as 200 people in the past couple of months to unearth the identity of those responsible for the killing of the judge.
Chief Justice Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad posted the matter for further hearing on January 14 and directed the CBI to furnish the affidavit on the new developments as mentioned by it.
Anand, an additional sessions and district judge, was run over by a auto rickshaw in the early hours of July 28 last year while he was out on his morning walk. The entire incident was captured on a CCTV camera installed by the Dhanbad district administration and had shocked the judiciary across the country. The Jharkhand high court has been monitoring the case from the beginning and has kept close tabs on the CBI investigation.
Also read: ‘Report After Report’: Jharkhand HC Once Again Pulls up CBI Over Dhanbad Judge Murder Probe
Earlier, too, the bench had conveyed its dismay on the poor pace of investigation. In December, it had said that the agency has been filing multiple reports but was unable to give plausible explanation for the events leading up to the murder. It had pulled up the CBI on multiple occasions.
In October, the HC had said that the investigating agency’s chargesheet in the case was like a “novel” and it had failed to substantiate the murder charge against the two accused persons.
On October 22, it had said the agency seems to have worked like babus (clerks) while completing the probe and had filed a “stereotype” chargesheet.
The CBI, on its part, had earlier assured the court several times that the investigation in the case was on in full swing and that the connections of the two accused with several persons was being explored to link them with Anand’s murder.
The Supreme Court had directed the Jharkhand high court to monitor the investigation in the case.
(PTI)