Ranchi, April 22 The Jharkhand High Court on Wednesday reserved its order in a criminal appeal filed by Rahul Verma and Lakhan Verma - convicted for the murder of Dhanbad Judge Uttam Anand.
Anand was killed on July 28, 2021, when he was out for his morning walk in Dhanbad. Both the convicts were driving an autorickshaw, which rammed into Anand, resulting in his death.
Both Rahul and Lakhan were convicted for the murder of Uttam Anand by a special CBI court in Dhanbad. The special judge, Rajinikant Pathak, sentenced the convicts to life imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 each.
The convicts challenged the sentence imposed by the special judge before the high court, which was heard by a division bench headed by Justice Rongon Mukhopadhyay.
In the course of the hearing on Wednesday, the court ordered the screening of the video of the footage showing the incident when Uttam Anand was hit by the autorickshaw.
The proceedings before the high court continued for more than four hours, after which the court reserved its judgment.
Earlier soon after the death of Uttam Anand, the high court initiated a petition suo motu on July 29 and started monitoring the progress of the case.
The high court at that time had observed that the incident indicated that "it is an attack on the justice dispensation system."
The bench said that the murder of a senior judicial officer is a direct assault on the judiciary.
The murder of Uttam Anand was caught on camera, and the CCTV footage showed him walking near the Randhir Verma Chowk, a posh area in Dhanbad, on June 28, 2021, at 5 am.
The judge was hit by an autorickshaw with a passenger sitting in the front along with the driver.
A motorcyclist was also shown going behind the autorickshaw, who saw the injured judge fall on the ground.
The case was investigated by the CBI.
