- Friday, April 26, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE Supreme Court of India has weighed into the case related to the death of additional sessions judge in Dhanbad in the eastern Indian state of Dhanbad which the police suspect was a planned hit-and-run incident. On Thursday (29), Chief Justice of India NV Ramana said he spoke to the chief justice of the Jharkhand High Court over the matter.
The high court has formed a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the killing of Uttam Anand, the 50-year-old judge who was knocked down by an auto-rickshaw (three-wheel vehicle) while he was out for his morning walk on Wednesday (28). In CCTV footage, the vehicle was seen veering sharply towards the judge on an empty road.
The state police said it was trying to see the possibility of the incident having links to any order or action taken by the deceased judge. No link, however, has been revealed yet, Indian daily The Indian Express said citing sources.
The daily also examined local courts to see that Anand had passed 36 orders in July, of which 34 were related to regular or anticipatory please for bail in cases ranging from coal smuggling to murder. He allowed the please in only six.
The police detained drivers of the auto-rickshaw – Lakhan Verma and Rahul Verma – who according to the cops were caught with the “stolen auto”. It was learned that the vehicle was stolen from Jharia in the state on Tuesday (27) night and both the detained were being questioned and sent to judicial custody, the deputy inspector general of Bokaro in the state, Mayur Patel, said. Lakhan has a record of being booked in the past for theft, he said.
Patel is part of the three-member SIT which includes additional director general of police (operations) Sanjay Anand Latkar and Dhanbad special superintendent of police Sanjeev Kumar.
Though the motive was not clear, the officials were not ruling out the possibility of the judge being targeted over orders passed by him in recent times.
The matter was raised in the Supreme Court by senior advocate Vikas Singh, who is the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association. He said earlier that the incident was an “attack on judicial independence”, the Express added.
The chief justice of India told Singh that he spoke to the chief justice of Jharkhand High Court and the latter had taken up the case and all officers were asked to be present. He said the apex court will involve itself in the matter if it’s necessary.
