A special Central Bureau of Investigation court in Patna on Saturday sentenced life-imprisonment to three men, convicted of murdering Satyendra Dubey, a National Highway Authority of India engineer, on November 27, 2003.
The court sentenced life imprisonment to Mantu Kumar, Udai Kumar and Pinku Ravidas.
Satyendra Dubey was murdered after he blew the whistle on corruption in the Golden Quadrilateral project in Bihar.
A special CBI court in Patna on March 22 held the three accused guilty of murder, over six years after Dubey was shot dead in Gaya town. Mantu was convicted under criminal sections for murder, the Arms Act for possessing unlicensed weapon, the statement said.
The other two accused persons were convicted of murder committed in furtherance of common intention and for
voluntary causing hurt in committing robbery, it said.
Dubey, an Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur alumni, who had exposed several cases of large-scale flouting of rules and corrupt practices in the Quadrilateral Project, was gunned down in the early hours of November 27, 2003, in front of the Circuit House in Gaya.
The murder sparked protests across the country amidst calls for a legislation to protect whistleblowers, who expose corruption.
The CBI, which had taken over the investigation of the case from the Bihar police on December 14, 2003, had filed a chargesheet in the case on September 3, 2004.
The CBI said a briefcase containing documents belonging to Dubey, including his identity card were recovered from an abandoned well and also a country-made pistol were recovered during the investigation.
