The Central Bureau of Investigation has detained one person in connection with the sensational murder of National Highways Authority official Satyendra Dubey.
The detained person has been identified as Pradeep Kumar, a rickshaw puller, official sources said.
The initial probe indicated that robbers killed Dubey. It has been alleged that Dubey was murdered after he pointed out corruption in the construction of Golden Quadrilateral Project in Bihar.
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The CBI managed to trace Kumar with the help of the stolen cell phone of Dubey. After his murder on November 27, the mobile phone of Dubey was switched off for about a fortnight.
However, this month, Kumar, who had allegedly stolen the phone, called his 'second wife' in Kolkata, following which the CBI sleuths traced the rickshaw puller in slums at Gaya and detained him for questioning.
The rickshaw puller has a criminal history of involvement in similar cases of robbery in the past as well, the sources said.
The CBI sources said that according to investigations so far, Dubey had called his driver from Varanasi, where he had gone to attend a marriage, on the ill-fated day.
However, on his arrival at the Gaya railway station, Dubey found that his driver had not turned up at the station to pick him up.
Dubey called his driver again who said there was a starting problem in the car. Following this, Dubey hired a rickshaw and it is alleged that he was followed by some persons reportedly involved in robberies with the help of rickshaw pullers.
It is alleged that Dubey, who was carrying a briefcase, resisted the robbery following which someone from the group shot him with a country-made pistol.
The CBI was probing into various angles of the murder and a team headed by a senior official of the agency would visit Gaya again for a detailed interrogation of the driver and other staff of Dubey.
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the Bihar government together had decided to handover the Dubey murder case to CBI.
Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi had recommended handing over the probe into the murder to the CBI on December 8.
