Ranchi: The Jharkhand high court on Wednesday reserved its order in a criminal appeal filed by Rahul Verma and Lakhan Verma, who have been convicted of the July 2021 murder of the special judge of the special CBI court in Dhanbad, Uttam Anand.Special judge Anand was hit by an autorickshaw near the Randhir Verma Chowk, a posh area in Dhanbad, on July 28, 2021, at around 5 am when he was out for his morning walk. The murder was captured on CCTV cameras installed in the neighbourhood. The special judge was hit by an autorickshaw carrying a person sitting beside the driver. A motorcyclist, who was behind the autorickshaw, saw the injured judge fall on to the ground.The high court on July 29, 2021, initiated a suo moto petition and started monitoring the investigation of the case on a regular basis. It observed that the murder of a senior judicial officer is “a direct attack on the justice dispensation system”.During the course of hearing the petition, the high court had earlier said that “even in volatile states of the north east where insurgency was rampant at one time, judicial officers and advocates were never harmed. But Jharkhand has seen two cases, in which an advocate practicing in Ranchi and a district judge ranking officer have been slain”. Advocate Manoj Jha was murdered in Ranchi on July 26, two days before Anand was killed.The high courttransferred the case to CBI on August 3, 2021. The CBI filed a chargesheet in the case on October 20, 2021. Special judge of a special CBI court in Dhanbad, Rajinikant Pathak, on July 28, 2022 convicted both Rahul and Lakhan for special judge Uttam Anand’s murder and sentenced the convicts to imprisonment for life and imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on each.The convicts challenged the sentence awarded by the special CBI judge before the high court. A division bench of the high court, led by Justice Rongon Mukhopadhyay, on Wednesday ordered the screening of the CCTV footage showing the incident when Uttam Anand was hit by the autorickshaw. The video of the footage was played on screen during the course of the proceedings on Wednesday, exposing the act in detail. Anand was hit by the autorickshaw and lay bleeding on the road for four hours before being taken to the Patliputra Medical College and Hospital in Dhanbad.The proceedings continued for over four hours on Wednesday, after which the high court reserved its judgement.
