Tag: Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad

Dhanbad Judge Murder Probe: Jharkhand HC Reprimands CBI For Slow Progress Once Again

Seeking time to come out with “new facts”, the CBI told a division bench of the HC that it has questioned as many as 200 people in the past couple of months to unearth the identity of those responsible for killing the judge.

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)

No New Fact Discovered by CBI in Judge Death Case; Jharkhand HC Unhappy

The investigation has not revealed anything which was not known before, the high court said while hearing a PIL initiated to monitor the probe.

Ranchi: Observing that no new fact has been discovered in the investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the death case of Dhanbad judge Uttam Anand, the high court of Jharkhand on Thursday expressed annoyance over the slow pace of the probe.

A division bench of Chief Justice Dr. Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad also expressed unhappiness with the lack of manpower at the Forensic Sciences Laboratory and ordered the state home secretary and the FSL director to appear before it on the next date of hearing.

The investigation has not revealed anything which was not known before, the bench said while hearing public interest litigation (PIL) initiated to monitor the probe into the 49-year-old additional district judge’s death after being hit by an auto-rickshaw in Dhanbad town on July 28.

The footage of the incident clearly shows that the auto-rickshaw driver went out of his lane and hit the judge. Even if the driver was inebriated, his intent is clear from the footage, the bench said.

CCTV footage showed that the judge, Uttam Anand, was jogging on one side of a fairly wide road at Randhir Verma Chowk near the district court early on July 28 when a heavy auto-rickshaw veered towards him, hit him from behind, and fled the scene.

Some locals found him lying in a pool of blood and took him to a hospital, where doctors declared him dead on arrival.

Dhanbad police seized the vehicle from Giridih district and arrested the auto-rickshaw driver Lakhan Verma and his assistant Rahul Verma.

A special investigation team (SIT) of the state police was probing the case initially. The state government later handed it over to the CBI which started its investigation on August 4.

The central agency on Wednesday doubled its reward to Rs 10 lakh for anyone sharing “information of importance” on the death of the judge.

The CBI has used various scientific tests on the two accused in its bid to solve the mystery.

The bench on Thursday also summoned the home secretary and director of the Forensic Sciences Laboratory to appear before it in the virtual mode on the next date of hearing.

The order came after the court was informed by the Jharkhand Public Services Commission that it had issued advertisements for appointment in the vacant posts of the FSL in March this year. However, the advertisement was cancelled and no fresh advertisement has been issued.

The bench expressed its displeasure over the issue and observed that the government wants to keep the court in the dark.

The high court on September 2 also expressed dissatisfaction over the slow progress into the investigation by the CBI into the judge’s death case and lack of workforce in the FSL.