Dhanbad Judge Death Case: Court Frames Charges Against Two Murder Accused

ASJ Anand was hit by an autorickshaw when he was out for a morning walk in July last year, resulting in his death.

Dhanbad ADJ Uttam Anand was killed on 28 July. Image used for representational purposes.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A Dhanbad court on Wednesday, 2 February, framed charges against auto-rickshaw driver Lakhan Verma and his helper Rahul Verma in the murder case of Dhanbad Additional District Judge (ADJ) Uttam Anand, who had died after being hit by an autorickshaw in Dhanbad on July 28 last year.

ADJ Rajni Kant Pathak framed charges against the driver, 22-year-old Lakhan Verma, and his helper, 21-year-old Rahul Verma under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender), 34 (common intention).

ASJ Anand was hit by an autorickshaw when he was for a morning walk and the incident was captured on CCTV. The deceased was later suspected to have been murdered.

Following the circumstances under which Anand died, Dhanbad police handed over two local residents they had arrested in the matter to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe into the re-registered murder case.

The CBI, which is probing the case under monitoring of the Jharkhand High Court, had filed a charge sheet in the court on 20 October last year, claiming that one of the accused, Rahul Kumar Verma, is a “professional thief, who keeps looking for vulnerable targets” and that his alleged accomplice Lakhan Verma had been “looking for a chance to execute the plan,” The Indian Express reported.

The CBI had stated in the charge sheet that the autorickshaw had rammed deliberately and intentionally causing the ADJ’s death.

However, last month, a division bench of Jharkhand high court, had raised questions over the probe status as the central agency is yet to establish a motive behind the murder.

(With inputs from The Indian Express.)