There are two important aspects to the killing of Satyendra Dubey, the NHAI engineer, in November, which need to be reiterated. First, it demonstrated the appalling political and administrative apathy to one who put his life at serious risk in order to preserve the integrity of an important national project. It was just as he had feared, almost foretold. Their apathy took his life. Second, is the amazingly cavalier fashion in which the investigation into his murder is presently being conducted, although it is being handled by the highest investigative body in the country — the CBI. At the authority of the highest political functionary in the country — the prime minister himself.So far the CBI has precious little to show for its exertions. Not only has it allowed an evidently important witness to the Dubey murder to disappear without a trace, it now transpires that two suspects in the case have inexplicably ended their lives after being interrogated by the agency. Is there then a method in this shameful hamhandedness? How is it that an agency as experienced as the CBI has made such a hash of the case, going by its performance so far? Was the agency not aware of the crucial importance of the single eye-witness to the crime, why then was he allowed to vanish into thin air? Why is it that no one realised the need to protect the suspects in such a high profile case, once they had been identified and questioned? Doesn’t the most basic principles of investigation lay down the importance of securing the lives of those being investigated? In any case, is the CBI quite certain that the two suspects actually took their lives and were not killed?It seems that the only weapon people have against this shoddy policing is their ability to ask those niggling, uncomfortable questions. Indeed, if this newspaper had not kept asking questions over these two months; if hundreds of readers all over the country and the world had not added their voices of inquiry to this campaign, Satyendra Dubey’s murder would have disappeared a long time ago from the national radar. After all, so many engineers have fallen by the highway, haven’t they? But the CBI must know that this avalanche of questions is not going to cease unless it provides concrete evidence that it is serious about its quest to bring Satyendra Dubey’s killers to justice.
