In the wake of the suspicious death of additional district judge of Dhanbad district court Uttam Anand; the Supreme Court on Friday took a suo moto cognizance of growing concerns about the threat faced by subordinate judicial officials across the country.

The suo motu case has been given the name ‘In Re: Safeguarding courts and protecting judges (death of Additional Sessions Judge, Dhanbad).

Notably, a few days before this upright judicial official was knocked down to death; the Supreme Court Justice Chandrachud had delivered a judgment on July 22 highlighting how judges are targeted for standing with truth and law.

The bench of the apex court led by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana directed chief secretary of Jharkhand Sukhdeo Singh and DGP of Jharkhand Police Niraj Kumar Sinha to submit a status report of the investigation of the case in a week.

The bench clarified that suo moto cognizance is not any kind of interference into the inquiry conducted by the Jharkhand High Court into the death of the judge.

The Supreme Court said it intends to focus on the larger aspects of the case, including the threats faced by judicial officials in the line of duty, especially such officials who are conducting trials and terrible working conditions in which trial judges function.

“The Dhanbad case has wider ramifications on the independence of the judiciary. We are getting reports that across the country judicial officers are under attack. We want to examine this issue and we may seek reports from the States,” the CJI said.

The judge who was out for a morning jog was knocked down by an auto rickshaw on Wednesday morning. The deceased judge was conducting trails of a number of sensitive and high-profile cases.

The incident was initially considered a hit-and-run case but it appeared a coldblooded brutal murder which shocked and outraged judiciary from top to the bottom.

The anger was quite palpable in the courtroom of the Supreme Court when the Supreme Court Bar Association president, Vikas Singh mentioned the incident in open court. The CJI spoke to the Chief Justice of the Jharkhand High Court Dr Ravi Ranjan.

And within hours after Jharkhand Chief Justice interacted with CJI, the Jharkhand High Court also took suo moto cognizance and decided to monitor the probe.

Meanwhile, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) led by ADG (Operations) Sanjay Anand Latkar on Friday interrogated two accused arrested in connection with Judge Uttam Anand suspected murder case at office of the SSP in Dhanbad  Besides ,the ADG , Bokaro IG Priya Dubey, DIG Bokaro, Mayur Patel Kanhaiyalal besides SSP Dhanbad Sanjeev Kumar and other police officers were present during the interrogation  of the two accuses Lakhan Verma and Rahul Verma  involved in the incident.