Out of sight Out of mind

What matters to us today, will it still matter after 3 yrs? 4 yrs?

I wonder how a news item reaches the cold sack.Is it because the legal proceeding come to halt? Because new developments in the case become infrequent? Because ‘the public’ loses interest? Because all scandal value of the issue has been wrung out?

Or is it simply that news has an expiry date?

I simply want to know, what happened of the Satyendra Nath Dubey, & B. Manjunathan cases.

Sure enough, the news is there, the hoopla is not. On searching, one will come across a lot.

Firstly, a blog has been established in each case. Anyone who cares may add their comments, condolences, outrage.

http://manjunathshanmugam.blogspot.com/#pressLink

http://www.rediff.com/news/dubey.htm

The families had met , to participate in “India Empowered: Roadmap for Tomorrow” conclave of The Indian Express.

The killings, in part, influenced Jayashree JN to start an awareness & activism campaign, http://fightcorruption.wikidot.com/ in March 2007 “to protect (her) whistle blower husband MN Vijayakumar”, as she unabashedly tells.

In October 2004, Satyendra Dubey was posthumously awarded the International Honesty Award by the Berlin based Transparency International.

Manjunath Shanmugam Trust (MST), an initiative of IIM alumni, award the ‘Manjunath Integrity Award’, starting 2006.

www.manjunathshanmugamtrust.org .

Uday Chaudhary, one of the 3 accused in Satyendra Dubey murder, ran away, not once, but twice, from court premises, ridiculously, by slipping out of oversized handcuffs.

A special CBI court, a Patna fast-track court on on 22 March 2010 convicted Mantu Kumar, Uday Kumar and Pintoo Ravidas, residents of Katari village in Gaya district, of murdering Satyendra Dubey. Dubeywas working with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and posted with the Golden Quadrilateral, a pet project of then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

He was shot dead on November 27, 2003, in front of the circuit house at Gaya while on a cycle-rickshaw heading for his home from the railway station., barely months after he wrote to the Prime Minister's Office detailing corrupt practices rampant in the project, and a nexus among corrupt officials, politicians and contractors. He was travelling from Varanasi.

the government, suspecting involvement of those against whom Dubey had pointed an accusing finger in the crime, ordered a CBI probe.

CBI, however, later concluded that the whistle-blower was killed by petty criminals in the course of robbery. According to the CBI, the accused robbed Dubey and during a scuffle, Mantu Kumar shot him with a .315 country-made weapon.

Monu Mittal, main accused in Manjunath Shanmugam murder and 5 others, Devesh Agnihotri, Sanjay Awasthi, Rakesh Anand, Shivkesh Giri, Rajesh Verma, Harish Mishra and Vivek Sharma were given life sentences on Dec 11 2009, & 2 were acquitted. On November 19, 2005, when Manjunath had gone to collect samples of adulterated petrol being sold at the outlet, he was shot by its owner Pawan alias Monu Mittal. Lucknow bench of Allahabad High court had originally awarded death sentence to Monu Mittal, later diluted.

India is still contemplating a law to protect whistleblowers.

India doesn't have a law to protect whistleblower

Whistleblowers should be given protection in India: Lokayukta

Right to Information, State Accountability, and Wikileaks

There remains dissatisfaction regarding whether those convicted & sentenced in Satyendra Dubey murder were really those who murdered him.