After it was believed to be a hit-and-run case, the death of the judge from Jharkhand has found to be a murder. The shocking twist came following the emergence of a mysterious CCTV footage that has also raised suspicions as it seems more like a phone camera recording of a security video clip.
The killing has attracted the attention of the Supreme Court as the Chief Justice of India NV Ramana said that he had a discussion with the Jharkhand High Court and will “take care”.
The murder revelation took place after an autorickshaw hit District and Additional Judge Uttam Anand in Dhanbad and took off. The video clearly showed that the act was deliberate. Judge Anand was on his routine morning jog on Wednesday morning on the deserted road at 5 am when the auto, which was coming straight, took the left stride, hit him intentionally and sped off straight again.
The driver of the autorickshaw along with his associate has been arrested, the cops said.
However, the delay in uncovering the accident to be a murder by the police has created an uproar, leading to sharp comments from the Jharkhand High Court.
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Before the CCTV video emerged, Judge Anand was told to be run by an “unidentified vehicle” only half a km away from his home.
He kept lying in a pool of blood at the murder site when a man took him to a hospital where he died, as per the cops. However, he wasn’t identified for hours until his family lodged a missing person complaint at 7 am. He was then tracked to the hospital and identified as the man who died in the accident.
According to the police, the video shows the clear intention of the person driving the auto to kill Judge Anand. To add more to the mystery, the auto had been stolen just hours before the murder.
Inspector General Amol Vinukant Homkar said, “Two people – Lakhan Kumar Verma and Rahul Verma – have been arrested and the auto was seized. They have confessed.”
It is known that the judge was handling cases of gangsters and mafia killings in his hometown. He had also refused to issue bail to two gangsters.
The killing has caused turmoil in the Supreme Court leading to the statement of Chief Justice NV Ramana. He said that the High Court Justice is working on the matter and the top court is “aware of the case and will take care”.
Meanwhile, the judge’s kin blamed the police for delaying the case recognition from an “accident” to a “murder”.
Reacting to the claims, Jharkhand Chief Justice Ravi Ranjan expressed his disappointment and said there will be a CBI investigation if the police are found guilty of delaying the case filing.
Speaking before a bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud, advocate Vikas Singh condemned the incident and called it a “brazen attack on the judiciary and judicial independence”.
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Justice Chandrachud said he would speak to the Chief Justice of India and inform him of the matter.
Being a matter of concern amongst the judges, the case was informally discussed in the top court’s alternate courtroom as well.
Questions were raised on the CCTV video as Justice MR Shah asked “Who shot the video?” Mr Singh said that the footage was “not normal CCTV” and seemed to be recorded “deliberately” to circulate in public as “voices” can be heard in the video.
