Two persons, including auto driver, arrested for ‘accidental death’ of sitting judge in Jharkhand

Express News Service
RANCHI: Police have arrested two persons in Dhanbad hit-and-run case which left Additional District Judge Uttam Anand dead when he was on his walk on Wednesday morning. The arrested includes the driver of the auto that was stolen a few hours before the incident, police sources informed. 

The police have found that the auto-rickshaw is registered in the name of a woman in Dhanbad who complained that her vehicle was stolen around 1 am. DIG Mayur Patel Kanhaiyyalal further stated that the accident is being investigated from all angles. “Different police teams have been roped in to get more details of the accident,” he said.

The CCTV footage of the accident, however, shows that the auto has intentionally hit Uttam Anand from behind raising suspicions on the incident. The sessions judge of Dhanbad was on his morning walk on the deserted road near the Golf Ground when the accident took place. The victim was killed less than 500 metres from his house at Jude Colony in Hirapur.

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Pawan Pandey, a passerby was one of the first who saw the judge lying in a pool of blood. He immediately rushed him to Sahid Nirmal Mahto Memorial Medical College where the judge succumbed to his injuries during treatment. the extent of the injuries was such that his body remained unidentified for a while. Even the policemen who reached the hospital could not identfy him.

Meanwhile, the family members of Uttam Anand raised an alarm and filed a missing complaint when he didn’t return home till about 7 am. FOllowing the complaint, his body was identified.

Initially, it was presumed that the judge died in a road accident but the CCTV footage which surfaced late in the evening, suggested murder angle in the case.

Police found that a stolen tempo was used to run over the judge.

Member of Jharkhand Bar Council, Hemant Sikarwa, has condemned the incident terming it as an intentional murder of a seating judge and has demanded a CBI probe.