HC asks CBI to unearth greater conspiracy into Dhanbad judge's death

Reprimanding the CBI for not properly conducting the unnatural death case of Dhanbad judge Uttam Anand in July last year, the High Court of Jharkhand on Friday said there is a greater conspiracy into the matter which needs to be unearthed.

While hearing the case online, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Dr Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad made an oral observation that the murder has not happened because of theft of a mobile phone or any other trivial matter.

There is a greater conspiracy and that should be unearthed, the court said.

The bench also ordered the CBI to produce reports of the narco test conducted on the two accused who have been arrested in the case.

The matter would be heard again on January 21.

The high court had on multiple occasions pulled up CBI in the case. In October, it had rapped the agency for filing a "stereotype" charge-sheet in the case, saying it could not substantiate the charges made against the accused.

CCTV footage showed that the additional district judge was jogging on one side of a fairly wide road near the district court at Randhir Verma Chowk early on July 28 when a heavy auto-rickshaw veered towards him, hit him from behind, and fled the scene.

Some locals found him lying in a pool of blood and took him to a hospital, where doctors declared him dead on arrival.

Dhanbad police seized the vehicle from Giridih district and arrested the auto-rickshaw driver Lakhan Verma and his assistant Rahul Verma.

The CBI has been investigating the case since August 4 and used various scientific tests on the accused in its bid to solve the mystery.

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the state police was probing the case earlier.