SIT formed to probe Dhanbad additional judge murder case

Sindri: Following orders from the Jharkhand high court, the state police on Thursday constituted a Special Investigating Team (SIT) led by ADGP (operations) Sanjay Anand Latekar to probe the “murder” of Dhanbad additional district judge (VIII) Uttam Anand on Wednesday morning but Dhanbad Police is maintaining a studied silence about the investigation so far.
Addressing the media, SSP (Dhanbad) Sanjiv Kumar informed that they have lodged a case of murder under Section 302 of the IPC based on a written complaint filed by Ananad’s wife Kriti Sinha
He said, “We have seized the autorickshaw that dashed the judge from behind while he was jogging by the road side on Wednesday morning. The auto rickshaw was traced to Mangrudih under Mufassil PS Giridih district by Wednesday night and two persons including the driver Lakhan Verma and his accomplice Rahul Verma, who is said to be sitting on the middle seat of the auto, have been arrested. They are both residents of Digwadih and Jorapokhar of Dhanbad.”
The SSP, however, refused to divulge details of the postmortem report and findings of the investigation so far, saying that scientific investigation of the case by the forensic team was going on and the police would share details only after getting some concrete evidence.
When asked whether it was a case of accident or murder, the SSP said they were investigating into the case from different angles and that he was not in a position to say anything on the issue conclusively.
On a query on the date and time of the theft of the autorickshaw involved in Anand’s killing, the SSP said they are getting different information in this regard and have directed the police officers to find out the truth behind it. “So far, all we know is that there is an old case of mobile theft against Lakhan Verma and the police were searching for the criminal antecedents of Rahul,” he added.
Meanwhile, the bar associations of the Supreme Court, the Jharkhand high court and Dhanbad courts are demanding a CBI probe into the case as the deceased was hearing some sensitive cases of the coal city.
It may be noed that the CCTV footage, which went viral, showed Anand jogging along the road near the Randhir Verma Chowk, a posh area in Dhanbad, around 5 am on Wednesday, when an autorickshaw came up from behind and was hit. The footage with a time stamp of 5.08 am ended with the judge falling by the side of the road reportedly with head injuries and bleeding. He was taken to the SNMMCH Dhanbad where he was declared brought dead, though a formal report on cause of death is awaited.
Four days earlier, the judge had reportedly rejected the bail petition of Ravi Thakur, lodged in Dhanbad jail on charges of demanding extortion money and hurling a bomb at the house of one Rajesh Gupta, a close associate of Baghmara MLA Dhullu Mahto. Ravi Thakur is said to be a protégé of UP gangster Aman Singh, who is currently lodged in Hotwar jail Ranchi. Aman is the prime accused in Dhanbad deputy mayor Neeraj Singh murder case. Aman has also been named in more than a dozen cases of demanding extortion from persons trading in coal and land in Dhanbad and threatening them with dire consequences.
Besides, Anand was also handling the murder case of one Ranjay Singh, the trial of which was likely to start soon. Ranjay Singh was a close associate of Sanjeev Singh, the former Jharia MLA and son of former Dhanbad strongman Suryadeo Singh. Sanjeev is also languishing in jail since 2017 in the murder of Neeraj Singh, who was his cousin.
Notably, Neeraj Singh’s wife Purnima Singh, contested from the Jharia assembly seat on a Ccongress ticket, and won by defeating Ragini Singh, wife of Sanjeev Singh.