New Delhi: Two persons convicted of murdering Dhanbad additional sessions judge Uttam Anand have been sentenced to imprisonment till death, the Indian Express reported. The decision comes a month after Lakhan Verma and Rahul Verma were convicted by a sessions court in Dhanbad. A fine of Rs 30,000 has also been imposed on both convicts.The 49-year-old district judge was mowed down by a heavy auto-rickshaw while he was out jogging near Randhir Verma Chowk in Dhanbad on the morning of July 28 last year.During the trial, the prosecution had said that it was a “premeditated act” that warranted a conviction under Indian Penal Code Section 302 (punishment for murder). On the other hand, the defence had pleaded that it was not an “intentional hit” and that it attracted only the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.“The judge pronounced both the accused guilty of murder. The court took into account the statement of only eyewitness Sharavan Kumar who had deposed that the auto knowingly steered towards the judge and hit him leading to his death. The court also relied upon the CFSL [Central Forensic Science Laboratory] report which had stated that both the accused were not under intoxication during the act,” defence counsel Kumar Bimlendu told the newspaper.In January, the high court had slammed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for its “laxity” in investigating the case. It had said that the auto driver and his accomplice knew that Anand was a judge before hitting him, and asked how could the CBI come up with the theory of “murder for robbing a mobile phone”.The court had said, “The investigation into the case raises a question on the credibility of the CBI. It seems that the agency is now tired of the case and wants to quit the investigation, which is why it is making up stories so that the accused are not charged with murder. The probe is going in such a direction that it appears that the CBI is trying to protect the accused.”As per a narco-analysis test report, someone had assigned them the task to kill the judge, NDTV had reported. The court had even said that the way the judge was killed, it seemed that the accused had conducted a recce earlier.