Ranchi, Mar 25 (PTI) The Jharkhand High Court on Friday directed the CBI to implead the chief of instant messaging giant WhatsApp in connection with the murder of an additional district judge last year.

A division bench of Chief Justice Dr Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad asked the central agency to make the head of WhatsApp a party in the case and issued a notice to the Facebook-owned company.

Also Read | Delhi Police Busted Inter-State Drug Trafficking Racket, Two Person Arrested.

The bench was hearing a public interest litigation initiated suo moto by the high court after the death of the judge.

Additional District Judge Uttam Anand, 49, was run over by an autorickshaw while he was out jogging on July 28, 2021.

Also Read | Anil Ambani, Reliance Group Chairman, Resigns as Director of RPower, RInfra.

The court was informed by the CBI counsel that it had sought WhatsApp chat details of two accused persons arrested in the case, but the instant messaging major denied access, citing security and privacy policies.

The bench then ordered the company to be added as a respondent in the case to ensure its appearance in the matter before the high court.

The case will be listed for hearing after a week.

(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)