Jharkhand HC asks CBI to start probe into Dhanbad judge death case

The High Court of Jharkhand on Tuesday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to initiate a probe into the death of Dhanbad district judge Uttam Anand at the earliest.

The bench of Chief Justice Dr Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad gave this direction after the reply of the CBI counsel during the hearing of the case.

Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Saturday decided to hand over to the CBI the probe into the hit-and-run case of the 49-year-old judge who died after a heavy autorickshaw rammed into him while he was on a morning jog on July 28 in Dhanbad.

The central investigating agency informed the court that it has received the state government's letter in this regard on Monday. The CBI may issue a notification for the investigation on Wednesday. To this, the court said that after the notification is issued, the agency should immediately register an FIR.

The court also directed the government to hand over all the documents of the case to the CBI. CCTV footage showed that the judge was jogging on one side of a fairly wide road at Randhir Verma Chowk early on July 28 when a heavy auto-rickshaw veered towards him, hit him from behind and fled the scene.

Also read: Supreme Court takes suo motu cognisance of alleged killing of Dhanbad judge

Earlier, the progress report of the investigation in the case was presented to the high court by the Special Investigation Team (SIT). Taking cognisance of a letter filed before the court by the Dhanbad principal district judge in the case, Chief Justice Ravi Ranjan converted it into a writ petition, and ordered the formation of an SIT headed by Additional Director General of Police Sanjay Latkar to look into the matter.

The bench, dissatisfied with the progress report, questioned why there was a delay in registering an FIR into the case. The incident occurred at 5.08 am, and the FIR was registered at 12.45 pm when it was clear from CCTV footage that the judge was picked up from the spot and taken to a hospital, the court said.

"Do the police register an FIR only on the basis of a statement? Do the police not register an FIR on their own? Why did the police take six hours to register the FIR?" it sought to know. The court said that there was fear among judicial officers following the incident and directed that the security of courts, including the high court, and judicial officers be strengthened.