A Dhanbad court on Wednesday framed charges against two persons made accused in the alleged murder of Additional Sessions Judge Uttam Anand in July last year. Additional District Judge Rajni Kant Pathak framed charges against Lakhan Verma and Rahul Verma under IPC Sections 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender), 34(common intention). ASJ Anand was out on a morning walk on July 28, 2021, when an autorickshaw knocked him down on an empty road -- the incident was captured on CCTV. He succumbed to injuries that morning. Dhanbad police arrested two people, both local residents. Police later handed over the probe to CBI, which re-registered a case. The CBI, which filed a chargesheet in a Dhanbad court on October 20 last year, claimed that one of the accused, Rahul Kumar Verma, is a “professional thief, who keeps looking for vulnerable targets”; that he and his alleged accomplice Lakhan Verma had been “looking for a chance to execute the plan”. The agency did not spell out the “plan”, nor did it give any motive for the crime. In the charge sheet, CBI stated that “deliberate” and “intentional” “ramming” caused “severe bodily injuries” which were “sufficient” in the “ordinary course of nature” to cause the ASI's death.
