Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren on Saturday recommended a CBI investigation into the alleged murder of Dhanbad judge Uttam Anand, which the Supreme Court says “concerns the larger issue of safety and security of judicial officers in the country”.

Currently, a special investigation team (SIT) formed by state police is probing the case and has been directed by Jharkhand High Court to hand in its report by August 3.

Additional district judge Anand was knocked down and killed on a Dhanbad street around 5am on Wednesday by an apparently stolen auto-rickshaw that, CCTV footage shows, had swerved sharply from the middle of the lane.

Judge Anand had recently rejected the bail petitions of Abhinav Singh and Ravi Thakur, two alleged shooters.

The suspected shooters were linked to Uttar Pradesh gangster Aman Singh who is in custody over the murder of former Dhanbad deputy mayor Niraj Singh.

Judge Anand was also hearing the murder case of Ranjay Singh, aide to former Jharia MLA and BJP politician Sanjeev Singh, who too is in jail custody over Niraj Singh’s murder.

On Friday, the high court bench of Chief Justice Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan said: “We are directing the SIT to submit a report on the next date of hearing (August 3). Let an affidavit be filed disclosing as to when the information regarding the occurrence was received by the police and the time when the FIR was registered.”

Relatives of Judge Anand have expressed dismay that the FIR was registered only around 12.30pm on Wednesday and that a copy of the post-mortem report has not been given to them.

“Let information be also given to us as to whether the procedure of post-mortem was video-graphed or not,” the high court said.

It also directed Jharkhand DGP Neeraj Sinha to submit a report on the crime rate in the state since February 2020.

Soren met Judge Anand’s relatives on Friday. The family requested him to provide the judge’s wife with a job on humanitarian grounds.

Auto ‘intrigue’

The police, who had on Thursday arrested two youths alleging the stolen auto was in their possession, on Friday took the auto’s regular driver Gopal Lohar into custody for questioning.

Police sources quoted Gopal as saying that Ramdev Lohar, husband of the auto’s owner Sugni Devi, had said on Monday he would get the three-wheeler stolen and claim the insurance.

“We are trying to trace Ramdev, who is known to be involved in the sale of illicit liquor and has gone into hiding since Thursday,” an SIT member said.

“He can tell us whether the auto was deliberately stolen to hit the judge, or whether it was an accident.”

The police are scanning the mobile call details of the two arrested youths, Lakhan Kumar Verma and Rahul Verma, who officers say were inside the auto when it hit the judge.

“Some eyewitnesses are being questioned,” said additional director-general of police (operations) Sanjay Anand Lathkar, who heads the SIT.