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The judge was hit by an auto-rickshaw during his morning walk on July 28, 2021 and subsequently succumbed to head injuries.
A Special CBI Court in Dhanbad on Thursday held two accused guilty of murdering Additional Sessions Judge Uttam Anand, ANI reported. Anand was hit by an auto-rickshaw during his morning walk on July 28, 2021 and subsequently succumbed to head injuries.
The court will pronounce the quantum of the sentence on August 6. It is to be noted that the verdict came exactly a year after the judge was killed after the autorickshaw hit him on an empty road in Dhanbad.
The Additional Sessions Judge has convicted accused Lakhan Verma and Rahul Verma under sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) and under 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
According to sources, the prosecution had argued that the motive of the crime was to snatch Anand’s mobile phone and that it was a premeditated act that warranted a conviction under IPC Section 302.
The defence had argued that it was not an “intentional hit” and that it attracted only the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
The killing of the Judge was viewed as an “attack on judicial independence” and Chief Justice of India N V Ramana had said that he had spoken to the Chief Justice of Jharkhand High Court on the matter.
The Jharkhand government handed over the investigation into the killing to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which had re-registered the case and filed the charge sheet in October last year. The sessions court framed charges on February 2, 2022.
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