Law Kumar Mishra
Patna, July 29
Giridih police on Thursday morning hunted down the auto rickshaw that knocked down Dhanbad Judge Uttam Anand to death on Wednesday and arrested three persons in connection with the incident.
The three were apprehended from Sanarpatti area under Mufassil police station and were taken to Dhanbad, 280 km from here for interrogation. Higher agency probe has been pleaded given the sensitive cases the Judge was dealing with.
Uttam Anand was killed at 5.08 am while he was on morning walk with Bermuda and T-shirt near Randhir Verma Chauk, close to the Judges colony in the heart of Coal capital-Dhanbad. After hitting the judge, auto moved towards Govindpur on NH 2(GT Road) where refilling was done at a petrol pump. Following the inputs from the CCTV, the police could track the auto that had moved towards Giridih.
Auto was stolen on Tuesday night from Pathardih near Jharia and after removing the number plate, the alleged killers had reached Judges colony area in the wee hours. The owner of the auto, Ms Sugni Devi had complained to the police about the theft.
DIG of Bokaro police range Mayur Patel, who visited the site of the “accident” and met the family members of Uttam Anand, said it was a clear case of murder, not an accident. Dhanbad MP, Pashupati Nath Singh and MLA Raj Sinha, who also talked to the judge’s family members said law and order was at its worst in Dhanbad. It was murder of the Judge who was hearing some sensitive cases, they said, adding that there should be a CBI inquiry into the incident. Mathura Prasad Mahto, former minister and JMM MLA from Giridih backed them.
The quarters of the judges of Dhanbad is located near the Collectorate and District Court and is walking distance from Randhir Verma Chauk, named after the then SP of Dhanbad, who was gunned down by terrorists during an encounter at Bank More in 1992. Judge was jogging towards the Golf Course grounds, an open field in the town, which is also close to the Judges colony.
He was hearing some sensitive cases, including murder of Ranvijay Singh, who was close to the former MLA, Sanjeev Singh, once a muscleman of the Coal fields and from the Singh mansion on Saraidhela road. He was MLA from Jharia. Judge had rejected the bail applications of shooters Abhinav Singh and Ravi Thakur of Uttar Pradesh who were allegedly involved in the murder. They are lodged in Hotwar central jail.
Uttam Anand, who was posted at Dhanbad six months back, was also hearing another sensitive case of bomb explosions in the house of a coal trader Rajesh Gupta.
Dhanbad had been notorious for the gang wars for several decades and several trade union leaders were gunned down in the gang war for control over coal business and transportation. Even in the family of Singh mansion, once headed by the former MLA Surajdeo Singh, considered close to the then Prime Minister, Chandra Shekhar, gun battles took place leading to death in the families.
Gangs of Wasseypur screened a decade back and presented the dark side of Dhanbad.
Chief Justice of Jharkhand High Court Ravi Ranjan, who received a call from the Chief Justice of India earlier in the day, has taken suo motu cognizance of the “murder” of Uttam Anand and summoned SP and DIG to Ranchi in the afternoon.
