Satyendra Dubey murder accused escapes from court

PATNA:  Uday Kumar, prime accused in the murder of whistle blower Satyendra Dubey, fled from the Patna civil court on Monday, giving the slip to a police team escorting him.

”Kumar was handcuffed when he was brought to the lower court from the high security Beur jail where he was lodged, but he managed to escape,” a police official said.

Kumar, in his early 20s, is one of the three accused named in the charge sheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the murder of Dubey, an engineer who worked on the Golden Quadrilateral highway construction project in Gaya district of Bihar.

According to the CBI, it was a case of murder for robbery.

A manhunt was launched to nab the accused. Police officials suspect involvement of some of the policemen escorting him.

This is the third time an accused in the Dubey murder case has managed to escape from court.

Dubey, a 31-year-old graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) working with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and posted with the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's pet project, was murdered Nov 27, 2003.

The incident came after he wrote to the Prime Minister's Office detailing corrupt practices rampant in the project.

In his letter, he spoke of a nexus among corrupt officials, politicians and contractors in the project.