Satyendra Dubey

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve
this article if you can. The talk page may contain suggestions. (January 2008)

Satyendra Dubey

Died 27 November 2003 (aged 30)

Gaya, Union of India

Cause of death Assassination

Nationality Indian

Education B.Tech (Civil 1994), M.Tech (Civil 1996)

Alma mater IIT Kanpur, Banaras Hindu University

Occupation Astt. Director

Employer Govt. of India

Organization NHAI, IES

 Known for Satyendra Dubey exposed the corruption in government

system. Consequence of his daring step was his

assassination. Prominent figure and ideal of Right to

Information movement

Notable works Exposed corruption in Government system

Influenced by Right to Information

Home town Siwan District

Religion Hinduism

Satyendra Kumar Dubey (1973 - 27 November 2003) was a project director at the National Highways
Authority of India (NHAI). He was murdered in Gaya, Bihar after fighting corruption in the Golden
Quadrilateral highway construction project.

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Early life

• 2 Professional life

o 2.1 Exposing Corruption

• 3 Letter to the Prime Minister

o 3.1 Great Loot of Public Money:

Contents of Letter

• 4 Murder

o 4.1 The investigation

o 4.2 Murderer escapes

o 4.3 Who ordered the murder?

• 5 Conviction

• 6 Legacy

• 7 See also

• 8 References

• 9 External links
[edit]Early life
Satyendra K. Dubey, the son of Bageshwari Dubey and Phulamati Devi, was born at the village ofShahpur in
the Siwan district of Bihar, India. The family of five girls and two boys subsisted on a small piece of land, and
Bageshwari also held a low-paying clerical position in a nearby sugar mill.Until the age of 15 he studied at the
Gang Baksh Kanodiya High School in Shahpur and then joined junior college at Allahabad, about three
hundred kilometers away. Living away from home was a considerable drain on the meager resources of his
family. However, he pursued his dream of becoming an engineer, and was admitted to the Civil Engineering
Department of IIT Kanpur in 1990, the first person from his village to enter an IIT. He graduated with an
excellent academic record in 1994. Subsequently, he did his M. Tech (Civil Engg.) from IT-BHU in 1996.

[edit]Professional life
For some time, Dubey worked at the Ministry of Surface Transport in Delhi, before he was selected for
the Indian Engineering Service (IES), India's top engineering bureaucracy. While at the ministry he once called
the police when offered a bribe[1] In July 2002 he was employed by the National Highway Authority of
India (NHAI). Dubey became the Assistant Project Manager atKoderma, Jharkhand, responsible for managing
a part of the Aurangabad-Barachatti section of National Highway 1 (The Grand Trunk Road). This highway was
part of the Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) Corridor Project, the Prime Minister's initiative, which aimed to connect
many of the country major cities by four-lane limited-access highways totalling 14,000 km, at an overall cost
more than USD 10 billion. During this period, Dubey got the contractor of the project to suspend three of his
engineers after exposing serious financial irregularities. At one point, he had the contractor rebuild six
kilometers of under-quality road, a huge loss for the road contract mafia.

[edit]Exposing Corruption
The GQ project had strict controls to ensure that the construction work would be carried on by experienced
firms with proper systems. A second independent contract was given for supervision of the project. However,
Dubey discovered that the contracted firm, Larsen and Toubro, had been subcontracting the actual work to
smaller low-technology groups, controlled by the local mafia. When he wrote to his boss, NHAI Project Director
SK Soni, and to Brig Satish Kapoor, engineer overlooking the supervision, there was no action. According to
the police's First Information Report (FIR) after his murder, Dubey had been facing several threats following his
action against corruption at Koderma. A subsequent FIR filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)
named both Soni and Kapoor. In August 2003 when he was transferred toGaya, a transfer which he opposed
since he felt that it did not serve the interests of NHAI. At Gaya, he exposed large-scale flouting of NHAI rules
regarding sub-contracting and quality control. At this time he took a departmental test and was promoted as
deputy general manager, which made him eligible to take charge as project director. Since there was no project
director's post in Gaya, he was likely to be posted to Koderma soon. There was widespread sentiment (based
on their pattern of operation), that the criminal nexus, opposed to having him as director, may have been
behind his murder.

[edit]Letter to the Prime Minister

Meanwhile, faced with the possibility of high-level corruption within the NHAI, Dubey wrote directly to the Prime
Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, detailing the financial and contractual irregularities in the project. While the letter
was not signed, he attached a separate bio-data so that the matter would be taken more seriously. Despite a
direct request that his identity be kept secret and despite the letter's sensitive content, accusing some of
Dubey's superiors, the letter along with bio-data was forwarded immediately to the Ministry of Road Transport
and Highways. Dubey also sent the same letter to the Chairman of the NHAI. Soon Dubey received a
reprimand: the vigilance office of NHAI officially cautioned Dubey for the impropriety of writing a letter directly to
the Prime minister. In the process, through connections in the NHAI and the Ministry, it is likely that the letter
may have reached the criminal nexus running the highway construction projects in Bihar. Following the event,
pressure is mounting in India to incorporate a Whistleblower Law.

[edit]Great Loot of Public Money: Contents of Letter

The letter said the NHAI officials showed a great hurry in giving mobilisation advance to selected contractors
for financial consideration. "In some cases the contractors have been given mobilisation advance just a day
after signing the contract agreement."

"The entire mobilisation advance of 10 per cent of contract value, which goes up to Rs 40 crore (USD 10
million) in certain cases, are paid to contractors within a few weeks of award of work but there is little follow up
to ensure that they are actually mobilised at the site with the same pace, and the result is that the advance
remains lying with contractors or gets diverted to their other activities," it said.

Dubey also highlighted the problems of sub-contracting by the primary contractors like Larsen and Toubro.

"Though the NHAI is going for international competitive bidding to procure the most competent civil contractors
for execution of its projects, when it comes to actual execution, it is found that most of the works, sometimes
even up to 100 per cent are subcontracted to petty contractors incapable of executing such big projects," he
said. Everyone in the NHAI is aware of the phenomenon of subcontracting but looked the other way. "A dream
project of unparalleled importance to the Nation but in reality a great loot of public money because of very poor
implementation at every state." wrote Dubey. Finally, he ends: "I have written all these in my individual
capacity. However, I will keep on addressing these issues in my official capacity in the limited domain within the
powers delegated to me," the letter said.

[edit]Murder
On November 27, 2003, Dubey was returning from a wedding in Varanasi, and called his driver to meet him at
the station. He reached Gaya railway station at three in the morning, and found that the his car was not able to
come because of a battery malfunction. It appears that at this point Dubey decided to take a rickshaw home.
When he didn’t reach home, his driver went to look for him and found him dead by the side of the road in the
suburb of A.P. Colony. He had been shot. The news ignited tremendous public hue and cry. The matter was
raised in Parliament, and the Prime Minister shifted the onus of investigation from the Bihar Police (who might
themselves be implicated), to the CBI.[2]The CBI registered a case against unknown persons under 120-B
(criminal conspiracy) and 302 (murder) of Indian Penal Code and various provision under the Arms Act on
December 14, 2003.

[edit]The investigation
In early investigations, the CBI interrogated the rickshaw puller Pradeep Kumar who was caught using Dubey's
stolen cell phone. The mobile phone had been switched off for about a fortnight after the murder, but then
Kumar called his 'second wife' in Kolkata, following which the CBI traced the rickshaw puller to his slum in
Gaya. Although Kumar had a criminal history in similar cases of robbery, it appears he was released after
interrogation, and could not be traced a month later. Two other suspects, Sheonath Sah and Mukendra
Paswan, were questioned by the CBI. They were found dead from poisoning on February 1, 2004, within 25
hours of the CBI questioning. Sah's father lodged an FIR against the CBI with the Bihar Police, but CBI Director
Umashanker Mishra called their deaths a suicide in a press meeting a few days later.[3] The CBI later arrested
four persons, Uday Mallah, Mantu Kumar, Tutu Kumar and Babloo, all belonging to Katari village of Gaya on
June 6, 2004. On June 13, the CBI arrested another accused Sarvan Paswan[4]. In conclusion of its
investigations, CBI arraigned four persons on September 3, 2004. Based on testimony by Pradeep Kumar, who
was his rickshaw puller, the event was presented as an attempted robbery. Because Satyendra put up a fight
about giving up his briefcase, he was shot. The person accused of actually shooting Dubey with a country-
made pistol was Mantu Kumar, son of Lachhu Singh, of Village Katari, Gaya district. Accomplices with him
included Uday Kumar, Pinku Ravidas and Shravan Kumar.

[edit]Murderer escapes
Mantu Kumar was arrested from near his home in Panchayatee khada in Gaya. He had apparently been living
in Gaya town and working as a rickshawpuller. On September 19, 2005, while the case was being heard
in Patna, Bihar in the court of Addl. Session Judge, J M Sharma, Mantu Kumar escaped from the court
premises, leading to widespread allegations of police complicity. While Mantu was being held at the high
security Beur Jail, the invigilation can be lax during such court appearances, and it is a common tactic of the
mafia to organize a few policemen to make it possible for the criminal to escape. It was felt that the escape was
engineered by higher-ups who may have executed the murder through Mantu Kumar. The CBI announced a
cash reward of Rs. 1 Lakh for apprehending Mantu.[5]
[edit]Who ordered the murder?
It is possible that Dubey may have been the victim of a simple robbery during which Mantu Kumar shot him, as
alleged in the case filed by CBI. However, given the death and disappearance of several witnesses and the
startling escape of the prime accused, there is widespread speculation that vested interests may have engaged
the criminals who actually pulled the trigger. As for the GQ project, the Supreme Court is currently overlooking
investigations into the corruption charges initially raised by the Dubey letter. Several official have been indicted
and a technical team is overseeing the actual construction. Also, as of September 2005, news reports indicated
that the law ministry was about to introduce legislation to protect whistleblowers. Meanwhile, on 10 February
2006, a 600 meter stretch of the GQ highway connecting Kolkatato Chennai subsided into the ground, opening
up ten meter gorges near Bally, West Bengal [6]. This stretch had been executed as a joint venture between two
Malaysian firms RBM and Pati, selected after global tendering.

[edit]Conviction

More than six years after the murder, on March 22, 2010 Patna Court convicted three accused Mantu Kumar,
Udai Kumar and Pinku Ravidas for murdering Dubey.[7]. The court convicted accused Mantu Kumar under
Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 302 (Murder), 394 (Voluntary causing hurt in committing robbery) and 27 (A)
Arms Act for possessing unlicensed weapon.The other two accused were convicted under Section 302/34
(Murder committed in furtherance of common intention) and 394 IPC.

[edit]Legacy

Dubey's murder drew several protests in India and abroad, especially by the media. Student and Alumni bodies
of IITs took the lead in raising this issue. S. K. Dubey Foundation for Fight Against Corruption was founded in
the US by Ashutosh Aman (IIT Kanpur, Satyendra's batchmate) and Atal Bansal (IIT Kanpur) to systematically
fight against corruption. IIT Kanpur instituted an annual award in his name,Satyendra K Dubey Memorial
Award, to be given to an IIT alumnus for displaying highest professional integrity in upholding human values.
[8]
Arvind Kejriwal, a recipient of this award, went on to receive the Ramon Magsaysay Award as well.
The Indian Express also announced a fellowship in the name of Dubey.[9] Satyendra Dubey was recognised
posthumously by several awards, which included the Whistleblower of the year award from the London-
based Index on Censorship[10], the Transparency International's Annual integrity award and the Service
Excellence award from the All India Management Association.[11] On November 26, 2007 NDTV aired a
documentary by Mini Vaid on Satyendra Dubey, produced by Ashutosh Aman on behalf of the S K Dubey
Foundation[12]. Famous Indian musician Rabbi Shergill has dedicated one stanza in his song titled 'Bilqis (Jinhe
Naaz Hai)' from album Avengi Ja Nahin to Satyendra Dubey. This song is a dedication to all those who died in
vain or while supporting some cause (anti-corruption).

[edit]See also
 Shanmughan Manjunath: Indian Institute of Management Lucknow graduate and Indian Oil
Corporation employee Manjunath was brutally murdered by the oil mafia in 2005 when he tried to check
petrol adulteration in Lakhimpur Kheri, Uttar Pradesh.

 Jessica Lal murder case of a Delhi-model shot by Manu Sharma, the son of Haryana's electricity
minister. After a huge hue and cry, Manu Sharma was convicted and is serving out his prison term.

 Priyadarshini Mattoo Law student raped and killed by a classmate stalker who is the son of a high
ranking police officer. Detectives were influenced by the policeman to go easy on the killer, and thus the
case was transferred to the CBI. Murderer found guilty after dogged pursuit of justice by the media and the
victim's family, and sentenced to death[13].

 Rizwanur Rahman was a 30-year-old computer graphics trainer who was possibly murdered after
marrying Priyanka Todi, daughter of industrialist Ashok Todi. Initially, the incident was made out to be
suicide

 Sanjeev Nanda hit-and-run case where the grandson of a former Chief of Navy, ran over 6 people in
1999 and acquitted in a lower court because the court did not find any of the witnesses reliable and the
defense was able to make the case that it was perhaps a truck and not the BMW that had caused the
deaths. Following the media hue and cry, another court in September 2008 sentenced him to five years in
jail.