Koderma, Dec. 10: Gaya district magistrate Brajesh Mehrotra today called an emergency meeting following the summons issued by Patna High Court in the murder of National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) engineer Satyendra Kumar Dubey.
NHAI officials, including G.C. Mishra, manager of the Koderma-based project implementation unit that is supervising the three golden quadrilateral projects, participated in the meeting.
The high court has summoned NHAI officials from the Koderma unit and the Gaya site office tomorrow.
Speaking to The Telegraph from Gaya, Mishra said the meeting was called by the district administration to prepare the plan as per the directions of the court. “NHAI officials, including the engineering consultants and contractors working in the three most troublesome road stretches, are supposed to be present,” he said.
The court has also asked Bihar’s chief secretary, home secretary, the zonal commissioners of Patna and Gaya and the district magistrates and superintendents of police of Gaya, Aurangabad, Rohtas and Kaimur to be present in person.
The summons was issued by the bench of Chief Justice Ravi S. Dhawan and Justice Shashank Kumar Singh following a public interest litigation filed by advocate Mahendra Prasad Gupta.
Dubey, an IIT Kanpur graduate, was murdered on November 27 in Gaya allegedly for blowing the whistle on corruption in the Prime Minister’s dream project. Atal Bihar Vajpayee has said the killers “would not be spared”.
In his petition, Gupta has sought an intervention from Patna High Court, arguing it is the prime responsibility of the states concerned to provide security to the NHAI officials working for the golden quadrilateral project. The PIL said state governments could not ignore their responsibility just because the project is being executed by a central wing, in this case, the ministry of highways and road transport.
M.K. Verma, additional in-charge of the V-A package extending from Aurangabad to Barachatti, which was being looked after by Dubey, will also be present in the high court.
