Dhanbad judge murder case: 2 get life term by CBI court

India

pti-PTI

Dhanbad, Aug 06:
A
special
CBI
court
in
Jharkhand
on
Saturday
sentenced
an
autorickshaw
driver
and
another
person
to
life
imprisonment
in
connection
with
the
murder
of
a
Dhanbad
court
judge
last
year.

CBI
court
judge
Rajnikant
Pathak
on
July
28
held
autorickshaw
driver
Lakhan
Verma
and
his
associate
Rahul
Verma
guilty
of
murdering
49-year-old
additional
sessions
judge
Uttam
Anand.
The
quantum
of
punishment
was
pronounced
on
Saturday.

Besides
imprisonment
till
death,
the
bench
slapped
a
fine
of
Rs
20,000
on
both
convicts
under
IPC
Section
302
(murder).
The
CBI
judge
also
sentenced
the
duo
to
seven
years
in
jail
and
imposed
Rs
10,000
fine
on
each
under
IPC
Section
201
(causing
disappearance
of
evidence
of
offence,
giving
false
information
to
protect
offender).

Both
the
sentences
will
run
concurrently.
Anand
was
hit
by
a
heavy
autorickshaw
on
July
28
last
year
at
Randhir
Verma
Chowk
close
to
district
court
while
he
was
on
the
morning
jog
at
around
5.30
am.
He
died
on
the
same
day.

Terming
the
killing
of
a
judge
as
the
rarest
of
the
rare
crime,
CBI
counsel
Amit
Jindal
sought
death
sentence
for
both.
He
also
submitted
that
they
committed
the
crime
intentionally.
Defence
lawyer
Kumar
Bimelendu
told
reporters
that
the
judge’s
death
was
accidental
and
the
CBI
“concocted
the
murder
theory”.

The
verdict
will
be
challenged
in
a
higher
court.
Trial
in
the
murder
case
began
in
February.
The
court
had
registered
statements
of
58
witnesses
during
hearing.

CCTV
camera
footage
showed
that
the
judge
was
jogging
on
one
side
of
a
fairly
wide
road
at
Randhir
Verma
Chowk
in
Dhanbad
when
the
three-wheeler
veered
towards
him,
hit
him
from
behind
and
fled
the
scene.
An
SIT
was
initially
formed
to
probe
the
matter,
but
the
Jharkhand
government
later
handed
over
the
case
to
the
Central
Bureau
of
Investigation
(CBI).