Ranchi: Jharkhand high court on Tuesday upheld the life imprisonment of two men found guilty of murdering former Dhanbad judge Uttam Anand.The bench of Justices Rongon Mukhopadhyay and Pradeep Kumar Srivastava, in their judgement running into 108 pages, observed that “the enormity of the act of the appellants and the audacious nature of its execution has been an affront to the judiciary, encapsulating serious concerns over the safety and security of the judicial officers. As we have discussed and observed above, based on the voluminous records of the case, the complicity and culpability of the appellants is palpable”.The court heard the appeal filed by convicts Lakhan Kumar Verma and Rahul Kumar Verma and reserved its order April 22.The convicts were sentenced by the special CBI judge, Dhanbad, on Aug 6, 2022, to undergo life imprisonment for the judge’s murder.Anand was walking near Randhir Verma Chowk in Dhanbad on July 28, 2021 at 5 am. He was hit by an autorickshaw with a passenger sitting in the front along with the driver. The CCTV footage shows a motorcyclist going behind the auto and spotting the injured judge lying on the ground. Anand was subsequently rushed to the hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.The HC took suo motu cognisance of the case and initiated a probe. The CCTV footage was also played in the court. Llocal police investigation achieved no breakthrough in the case, following which the probe was handed over to CBI on Aug 3, 2021.CBI later arrested Lakhan and Rahul. As many as 58 prosecution witnesses were examined before the lower court held the convicts guilty of murder.