6 yrs on,3 convicted of Dubeys murder

Six years and four months after National Highways Authority of India engineer Satyendra Dubey,who had complained about corruption in the...

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Six years and four months after National Highways Authority of India engineer Satyendra Dubey,who had complained about corruption in the Golden Quadrilateral Project in Bihar,was killed,fast-track court V of Patna has convicted three persons of the murder. The quantum of punishment will be announced on March 27.

An IIT-Kanpur alumni,Dubey had written a letter to then PM A B Vajpayee detailing financial and contractual irregularities in the NDA governments flagship project. He was shot on November 27,2003,in front of the Circuit House in Gaya while he was on his way home from the railway station.

Mantu Kumar,Udai Kumar and Pinku Ravidas were convicrted on Saturday for the murder. While Mantu Kumar has been found guilty of murder and voluntarily causing hurt for a robbery apart from under the Arms Act for possessing an unlicensed weapon,Udai and Pinku have been convicted for murder committed in furtherance of common intention. The Indian Express had carried a series of stories on the Dubey murder case,leading not merely to the arrest of his alleged murderers and a clean-up in the national highway project,but also in the system moving closer to passing a whistleblower law. The outrage over the whistleblowers killing had also led to the CBI taking over the case in December 2003.

On Monday,senior CBI lawyer L R Ansari expressed relief at the case coming to a close. CBI had filed a chargesheet in the case on September 3,2004. It had arrested four persons Mantu,Udai,Pinku and Sharvan Kumar all residents of Katari village in Gaya. Shravan later turned approver and gave the police detailed information about the incident.

A CBI press release said the four accused had gathered near the Gaya Circuit House on the intervening night of November 26-27,2003. As Dubey crossed the road around 3.30 am in a cycle-rickshaw,the four robbed him and when he resisted,shot him with a .315 countrymade weapon,the CBI said.

The investigating agency had recovered a suitcase containing documents,including Dubeys identity card,from an abandoned well. The pistol used in Dubeys murder was also recovered later.

Inspired by Dubey,his batchmates at IIT-Kanpur had set up the S K Dubey Foundation for Fight Against Corruption. IIT-Kanpur has also instituted an annual Satyendra K Dubey Memorial Award to be given to an alumnus displaying professional integrity. Dubey was posthumously given Whistleblower of the year award by the London-based Index on Censorship,the Transparency Internationals Annual Integrity Award and the Service Excellence Award by the All India Management Association.