CBI turned all stones to get witness, now say we have no idea

• In fact, over the last six weeks, there have been only two days when the CBI team parked in Gaya has not visited his house, wife Asha Devi told The Indian Express today. ‘‘They keep asking me whether he has come here,’’ she said.

• The day Dubey’s cellphone was recovered—and Pradeep fled to Patna—the police had taken both the photos that his wife had, his clothes and belongings. Police sources said all this was handed over to the CBI including the preliminary interrogation reports.

• The six days that he was missing, there were two policemen posted outside his house round the clock.

• When the CBI took over and traced Pradeep in Patna, the police watch outside his Gaya house was withdrawn and replaced by a 24-hr CBI vigil.

Now that Pradeep has disappeared, members of the CBI’s team here are downplaying the importance of this witness.

‘‘He is only important if he talks in court, otherwise he is of no use,’’ one of them told The Indian Express on the condition of anonymity.

Incidentally, besides Pradeep, there is another person who heard the shots, a local security guard. He is said to have told police that by the time he looked, Dubey was dead and the assassins had fled. He is also being questioned by the CBI.