RANCHI: In a fresh development in the hit-and-run case involving Dhanbad District and Session Judge Uttam Anand, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has taken both the accused – Lakhan Verma and Rahul Verma on remand for six days. According to CBI sources, they will be conducting a fresh interrogation as the auto driver Rahul Verma, the prime accused in the case, has been changing his
statements regularly in order to misguide the investigating agency.
According to the status report submitted by the CBI in the Jharkhand High Court on September 23, it admitted that one of the two arrested persons was a professional mobile thief, who had been misguiding the investigating agency by narrating a new story every time he is interrogated. But, the CBI is interrogating him thoroughly and is likely to get into the details of the case very soon, it said.
CCTV footage showing an auto-rickshaw intentionally hitting the judge from behind on a deserted road on July 28 raised doubts over his death. The incident took place near Golf Ground less than 500 metres from his house at Judge Colony of Hirapur, when he was out for his daily morning walk.
Hours after the CCTV footage surfaced indicating that the incident was ‘intentional’ rather than an ‘accident’, the Jharkhand High Court took suo motu cognizance into the matter calling the incident a direct attack on the judiciary. Though the CBI had prayed for a remand of 10 days, the court of ADJM Abhishek Srivastav granted a remand of only six days. The CBI took both the accused persons on remand on Tuesday for six days to interrogate them again in order to get into the details of the matter.
Earlier on September 23, the CBI for the first time, informed the court that the sequence of incidents, CCTV footage and evidence collected from the place of occurrence has made it clear that Judge Uttam Anand was intentionally hit by the auto-rickshaw. Though they have not succeeded in getting any lead in this regard so far, all the suspects are being interrogated thoroughly on the
basis of CCTV footage, it said.
Incidentally, this is the fourth time that the two accused persons have been taken on remand. They were first taken on remand for five days by the SIT formed by the state government, then by the CBI on August 7 for five days, then again by the CBI for 10 days on August 11 following which they were sent back to jail on August 12. Now, they are again on remand till October 2.
They were also made to undergo brain-mapping, lie-detector and Norc analysis tests at Gandhinagar Forensic Laboratory on August 16.