Chief Minister Hemant Soren has recommended a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the death case of Judge Uttam Anand. The case was being investigated by a Special Investigation Team led by ADG (Operations) Sanjay Anand Lathkar. Now, the case will be investigated by the CBI.
Notably, the Additional District Judge had died when he was hit by an auto-rickshaw during morning walk in Dhanbad on July 28. Taking swift action police had arrested two persons and had seized the auto-rickshaw. On the initiative of CM, an SIT was formed for speedy investigation and arrest of the culprits.
The family members of late Judge Uttam Anand had also met the Chief Minister a day earlier. The CM had expressed his condolences on this sad incident and said that the government is with them in this hour of grief. He had told the family that the State government is serious about the investigation of the matter. It is the priority of the State government to ensure that the family gets justice by completing the investigation of this incident at an accelerated pace, he had said.
The Supreme Court on July 30 had taken suo moto cognizance of growing concerns about the threat faced by subordinate judicial officials across the country. The bench of the apex court led by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana had 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 had 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 had said it intends to focus on the larger aspects of the case, including the threats faced by judicial officials in the line of the duty especially such officials who are conducting trial and terrible working conditions in which trial judge function.
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.