India News | Dhanbad Judge Death Case: SIT Will Reach Conclusion Soon: ADG

Dhanbad, Aug 2 (PTI) The Special Investigation Team is probing the death of Dhanbad Judge Uttam Anand from all angles and will reach a conclusion soon, SIT chief and Additional Director General (ADG) of Police Sanjay Anand Latkar said on Monday.

The 49-year-old district session judge-8 was allegedly mowed down by a heavy autorickshaw while he was on morning jog on July 28 morning in Dhanbad.

After marathon meetings of SIT at Circuit House this evening, ADG Latkar said the team reviewed the progress of development in investigation of death of the judge from all angles and is closely keeping a vigil on all aspects related to the case in the course of ongoing probe.

The state government had on July 29 set up an SIT to probe the incident under ADG Latkar.

"SIT is investigating the case in a professional way and would take help of scientific techniques in probe for resolving the case", Latkar said addressing media persons.

The ADG said that SIT would reach a conclusion in the case soon after probing all facts and figures of the incident.

Latkar said two persons were arrested in the case and both arrested persons - auto driver Lakhan Verma and his accomplice Rahul Verma were sent in judicial custody Monday after completion of five days police remand.

Police had taken both on five days remand at night of July 29. Police detained 243 suspects during a special drive post the judge death case involved in various crime and arrested 17 persons besides seizing 250 auto-rickshaws, Senior Superintendent of Police Sanjiv Kumar told PTI.

Two police officers were also suspended, including one for making the CCTV footage of the incident public, he said.

Police have also searched 53 hotels of the district, he said. Though the police recovered the autorickshaw that hit the judge when he was out on morning walk, in a special drive, 250 autorickshaws that had documents irregularities were seized, the officer said. There are about 16,000 autorickshaws registered with the Transport Department in Dhanbad, sources said.

Sub Inspector Adarsh Kumar was suspended for making the CCTV footage public, Kumar said.

Pathardih police station's officer-in-charge Umesh Manjhi was suspended on Saturday for lodging FIR about an autorickshaw theft two days after the accident, he said.

Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Saturday decided to hand over the probe to the CBI. The Jharkhand government had set up a Special Investigation Team to crack the judge's death case, which triggered a nationwide outrage. The leaked CCTV footage showed that the judge was jogging on one side of a fairly wide road at Randhir Verma Chowk on Wednesday morning when an auto-rickshaw veered towards him, hit him from behind and fled the scene. The police had on Thursday arrested two persons, auto-rickshaw driver Lakhan Verma and his helper Rahul Verma, in connection with the case.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)