Dhanbad hit-and-run case: Court holds both accused guilty for killing judge, sentencing on August 6
RANCHI: A Special CBI Court of Rajnikant Pathak on Thursday held the two accused persons -- Lakhan Verma and his accomplice Rahul Verma -- guilty under sections 302 and 201 and 34 of IPC in Dhanbad hit and run case, in which, Judge Uttam Anand was killed.
Additional session judge Uttam Anand was mowed down by an auto-rickshaw on July 28 last year when he was on morning walk. Incidentally, the court convicted the two accused persons exactly a year after the incident took place.
“The special CBI Court has convicted the two accused persons guilty for killing additional sessions Judge under sections 302, 201 and 34 of IPC,” said defence lawyer Kumar Vimlendu. The CBI Court has fixed August 6 as the next date for hearing on the quantum of punishment, he added.
Apparently, the special CBI court completed the hearing in record 5 months by running a speedy trial in the case. Notably, a CCTV footage showing an auto-rickshaw intentionally hitting the Judge from behind on a deserted road has raised doubts over his death while he was on his morning walk schedule on July 28, last year. Within hours after the CCTV footage surfaced indicating that the incident was ‘intentional’ rather than an ‘accident’; the Jharkhand High Court took suo-moto cognizance into the matter calling the incident a direct attack on judiciary.
The Jharkhand government subsequently handed over the investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which had re-registered the case and filed the charge-sheet in October last year.
The incident was seen as an “attack on judicial independence” and the Jharkhand High Court expressing disappointment over the progress report filed in the case, had asked CBI Joint Director to expedite the investigations as the delay in resolving the case has been slackening the morale of Judicial Officers. The special CBI Court of Rajnikant Pathak conducted speedy trial in the case and completed the hearing in merely five months, during which, stalemates of 58 witnesses produced by the CBI were recorded. Subsequently, the court framed charges against the two accused persons on February 2 this year, and completed the trial after 35 hearings.
The CBI filed the charge sheet against auto-rickshaw driver Lakhan Verma and his accomplice Rahul Verma under Indian Penal Code sections related to murder (302) and destruction of evidence (201) besides common intention (34) on October 20, 2021.
Special Public Prosecutor of CBI Crime Branch Amit Jindal produced the postmortem report, CCTV footage, besides several 3D images to prove his point that the two accused persons hit the judge intentionally from behind with an intention to snatch his mobile phone while he was taking a morning stroll.