Dubey ‘killers’ get life but family upset

PATNA: Three men convicted of the murder of NHAI engineer and whistleblower Satyendra Kumar Dubey were sentenced to life imprisonment on Saturday in a verdict that the dead man’s family said brought no closure. CBI fast track court judge Raghvendra Singh had convicted Mantu Kumar, Udai Kumar and Pinku Ravi Das — all petty criminals— on March 22.The verdict brought little joy to thosewho had campaigned for justice for the 30-year-old IIT Kanpur graduate, shotdead in November 2003. Dubey is said to have been killed for trying to exposecorruption and links between officials and the mafia.Dubey’sfamily has repeatedly expressed dissatisfaction with the CBI probe, allegingthat the real culprits roam free.‘‘We are not happywith the way the case was handled. The people who have been sentenced are notthe real culprits,’’ said Dhananjay, Satyendra’s brother.Dubey wrote a letter to the Prime Minister about flouted rules on the GoldenQuadrilateral Project.Under public pressure, the case was handedover to CBI, which took over the investigation from the Bihar Police on December14, 2003, and filed a chargesheet in the case on September 3,2004.CBI counsel L R Ansari, however, was satisfied with theverdict. ‘‘The three have been convicted under Section 302. Thoughthey have also been found guilty for other offences, there has been no separatepunishment for the other crimes. In spite of appealing for maximum punishmentfor their crime, they have been given life imprisonment. We will appeal for thedeath sentence now,’’ he said.‘‘The courtdid not take into account our plea that the accused persons were juveniles atthe time of the crime. We will appeal against the judgment in the highcourt,’’ said Nagendra Sharma, counsel for defence.