The alleged murder of a Jharkhand district judge on a Dhanbad street on Wednesday figured in the Supreme Court on Thursday, with the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) alleging an attack on the “independence of the judiciary” and seeking a CBI probe.
Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana told SCBA president Vikas Singh he had already spoken to the chief justice of Jharkhand High Court and learnt that the high court had summoned top police officers of Dhanbad to take stock of the situation. So, no Supreme Court intervention is needed at the moment, Justice Ramana said.
Clip from footage shows the auto is changing its direction in Dhanbad. The Telegraph
Singh said that if a judge got killed after rejecting a gangster’s bail plea, “this is a dangerous situation for the judiciary” and the matter highlighted the need for judges’ protection.
Additional district judge Uttam Anand, who had denied bail to two alleged gangsters last week, was jogging around 5am on a two-lane road near Dhanbad city’s Magistrate Colony when an auto-rickshaw hit him from behind. He died in hospital.
Clip from footage shows the auto is hitting a man, presumed to be Judge Anand. The Telegraph
Initially it was thought a hit-and-run but the family lodged an FIR for murder after the police showed them the CCTV footage. A video clip on social media, which officials have confirmed as leaked CCTV footage, shows a man jogging by the roadside when an auto swerves sharply from the middle of the lane, knocks him down and speeds away.
Jharkhand police said two youths had been arrested on Thursday morning and had “confessed” to hitting the judge with the auto but not admitted to murder.
Judge Anand, a Hazaribagh native posted in Dhanbad six months ago, had been handling several cases of mafia killings in Dhanbad city. He had denied bail to Ravi Thakur and Anand Verma, suspected shooters who have been linked to alleged Uttar Pradesh gangsters Abhinav Singh and Aman Singh.
Clip from footage shows the auto is speeding away. The Telegraph
Dhanbad senior superintendent of police Sanjeev Kumar said the auto — believed to have been stolen before the purported attack on Judge Anand — had been seized from Lakhan Kumar Verma, 24, and Rahul Verma, 20, in Giridih, 45km from Dhanbad city. The duo, residents of Jorapokhar area of Dhanbad, have been arrested.
The auto owner, Suchita Devi, had on Wednesday morning lodged a police complaint saying she had woken up around 4.30am and found the three-wheeler, parked in front of her home in Dhanbad city’s Pathardih locality the previous night, had disappeared.
“The two youths have confessed to having hit the judge. We are trying to ascertain if they were involved in stealing the auto-rickshaw. We cannot reveal much,” SSP Kumar said.
He did not say anything about the two arrested youths’ backgrounds.
State advocate-general Rajiv Ranjan told reporters in Ranchi that the high court had appointed an additional director-general of police to lead a special investigation team (SIT) to conduct a probe that the high court would monitor.
The SCBA president had first raised the matter before the apex court bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and M.R. Shah on Thursday, seeking a probe into the suspected murder.
“If the judiciary has to be independent we have to come in very sternly to say that our judicial officers should be protected. The SCBA wants this to be taken up on the judicial side,” Vikas Singh said.
But Justice Chandrachud said the matter should be mentioned before the CJI.
When Singh did so, Justice Ramana said: “The high court has issued a notice to the police and district officials. They are hearing this matter today. Let them handle it. It does not require interference by us. I have spoken to the chief justice this morning.”
Justice Ramana, however, appreciated the SCBA’s efforts to highlight the matter.
