New Delhi: Two days after Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the murder of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) engineer Satyendra Dubey, Government today (Dec 11, 2003) denied having disclosed the identity of the engineer working on National Highways project in Bihar that is said to have led to his killing and blamed the "lawlessness" in the State for it.

Dubey's communication to Prime Minister was unsigned and undated and the Prime Minister's Office, which receives between 400 to 500 letters every day, forwarded it to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (North) for appropriate action, a five-page press release by the Ministry said.

"...Dubey sent several communications to local officers of NHAI (National Highways Authority of India) and consultants. While his letter to the Prime Minister had raised mainly general issues about perceived procedural shortcomings in the implementation of NHDP (National Highway Development Project), his local communications were very specific. These communications were not marked secret," the release said.

Dubey, a deputy general manager with NHAI, was murdered in Gaya on November 27 allegedly by the contractor mafia in Bihar, which he tried to expose in his letter to the Prime Minister.

The Ministry put the blame for the murder of the official involved in the Prime Minister's ambitious NHDP to "lawlessness" in Bihar.

"Media reports have not taken into account the serious law and order problem existing in Bihar, where Dubey was working," the release said listing out several instances of Government personnel being attacked.

PTI