CBI announces Rs 5 lakh reward on credible info in Jharkhand judge Uttam Anand death case

The CBI registered a case on August 4 in connection with the death of Dhanbad Additional District Judge Uttam Anand on the request of the Jharkhand government and constituted a SIT.

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has announced a reward of Rs 5 lakh for any information relating to the death of Dhanbad Additional District Judge (ADJ) Uttam Anand.

The CBI in a notice said, "If any person is having any kind of information of importance related to murder of Uttam Anand, he/she may kindly inform CBI, Special Crime-I, New Delhi, camp CSIR Satkar Guest House, Dhanbad on the phone numbers. Cash reward of Rs 5 lakh will be given to the person who will furnish worthwhile information relating to the crime."

"The name of the informant will be kept secret," it said. The CBI registered a case on August 4 in connection with the death of Dhanbad Additional District Judge Uttam Anand on the request of the Jharkhand government and constituted an SIT.

A 20 member SIT is camping in Dhanbad to probe the case. A case was earlier registered by the Dhanbad police on a complaint from Anand`s wife against an unknown auto driver. Uttam Anand was killed after an auto-rickshaw hit him on July 28 while he was on a morning walk.

After the CCTV footage surfaced, the Jharkhand government had formed an SIT to probe the matter. But, later it recommended the CBI probe into the death. The special investigation team has so far not made any headway, despite arresting a total of 17 people in the case including auto-rickshaw driver Lakhan Verma and his associate Rahul Verma.

On Tuesday, the Jharkhand High Court directed the CBI to start the probe into the death of the judge at the earliest, so that no evidence is destroyed. The court directed the state government to provide all logistics support and documents to the CBI.

The court also directed the Jharkhand Director General of Police to ensure security to the judicial officers in the state, and ensure deployment of security guards at their houses. It also wanted to know about the delay in the filing of the FIR as the incident took place at 5.08 AM and the FIR was lodged at 12.45 p.m.