SC takes suo motu cognisance over killing of Dhanbad judge

New Delhi, July 30: The Supreme Court has taken suo motu cognisance over the alleged killing of a Dhanbad judge and sought a report from the Jharkhand State Government.

The court sought a status report of the investigation from the Jharkhand government through the chief secretary and Director General of Police. The Bench headed by Chief Justice of India, N V Ramanna said that it has come across several instances of attack on judicial officers and lawyers inside and outside the court premises and wants to address the larger issue of safety and security of judicial officers in the country.

The driver of the tempo that hit the District and Additional Judge, Uttam Anand has been arrested in Dhanbad. The judge was on his morning run Wednesday when he was hit by the vehicle just half a kilometre from his residence in Dhanbad.

The footage showed the judge jogging at around 5 am when a tempo takes a turn and appeared to go straight at him. The tempo hits the judge and then drives off.

The judge was found fallen on the road bleeding. He was then taken to hospital where he passed away. While judge remained unidentified for several hours, it was only after the family filed a missing complaint the police tracked him down to a hospital.

The judge had been handling several cases relating to the mafia killings in Dhanbad and had recently rejected the bail of two gangsters.

"The High Court Chief Justice has taken up the issue and the case is now on at the High Court. We are aware of the case and we will take care," Justice Ramanna said. If we interfere at this stage then it will hamper the probe, the CJI also said.

Advocate Vikas Singh had raised the issue in the SC and said that it is a brazen attack on the judiciary.

He also demanded a CBI probe, while stating that the local police is usually complicit in such matters.