Dhanbad: The investigation into the death of district and sessions judge Uttam Anand has gained momentum with a CBI team, camping in the district, on Saturday reaching the spot where the victim was found lying injured after being hit by an autorickshaw.
As part of the investigation, a team comprising CBI and forensic department officials, inspected the accident site near Randhir Verma Chowk. During the course of the investigation, the CBI team recorded the speed of vehicles moving with a speed-checking device. The team recreated the scene to understand what actually happened on the day of the incident. To understand what would have been the speed of the auto at the time of hitting the judge, the entire scene was shown with a 3D scanner machine. This will later be produced before a magistrate.
Also read: Postmortem reveals Judge Uttam Anand died due to head injury
In this connection, the CBI team wants to take custody of the autorickshaw driver Lakhan Verma and his associate Rahul Verma for interrogation so that what actually happened can be established - whether the death of Judge Uttam Anand was just an accident or a well-thought out conspiracy. If sources are to be believed, the CBI can also approach the court for brain mapping and narco test of the accused.
The 20-member CBI team that reached Dhanbad on Wednesday started its work on the case from Thursday. The CBI is proceeding with great care unwilling to leave any lapse in their investigation. In line with this, the CBI team first tried to collect the evidence found so far in the entire case by meeting with SIT officials on Thursday. Following this, the documents and evidence related to the case were examined for hours at the Dhanbad police station. The CBI has also taken a copy of the 4,000-page case diary related to the judge's murder.
Also read: CBI takes over probe of Dhanbad judge's death, registers case
It may be recalled that on July 28, Judge Uttam Anand was out on a morning walk. It was believed that he was hit by an unknown vehicle during the course of his walk leading to his death. However, on the same day, a CCTV video went viral, in which it was clearly shown that people were sitting in an auto that went sideways in a suspicious state and hit Judge Uttam Anand. After the incident, an FIR was lodged against an unknown auto driver at Dhanbad's Sadar police station on the basis of the statement of the wife of the judge. After the FIR was registered for a murder case, an SIT was constituted under the leadership of ADG Operations Sanjay Anand Lathkar on the instructions of the state police headquarters.
The SIT had not found any evidence related to a planned murder in the investigation so far. At the same time, the Supreme Court and the High Court have also taken cognizance of this matter. The Jharkhand High Court is monitoring the matter. On July 30, the Jharkhand government had recommended a CBI probe. After this the CBI team reached Dhanbad on Wednesday. On Saturday, the team reached the spot and is engaged in the investigation.
