Uday Kumar, one of the prime accused in the murder of National Highway Authority (NHAI) engineer Satyendra Dubey, fled from Patna civil court on Friday, giving the slip to two policemen escorting him to the lower court.

This is the second time that an accused in the case has managed to escape from court. In September last year, another prime accused, Mantu Kumar, had fled in a similar fashion.

He was, however, rearrested a month later from Gaya. Three accused — Mantu Kumar, Uday Kumar and Pinku Ravidas — are in jail in connection with the murder of the IIT engineer. The fourth accused, Shravan Kumar, has turned CBI approver in the case.

Sushant Saroj, Patna DSP (Town), said all three accused were brought to the lower court from the high-security Beur jail. Though handcuffed, Uday, 19, managed to escape.

“The involvement of the two policemen is being suspected and they are being questioned. Meanwhile, a manhunt has been launched to arrest the accused,” Saroj said.

Project manager Dubey was gunned down in Gaya town on November 27, 2003 after he exposed corruption in the ambitious Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) road project. His case, which had generated a countrywide outrage, was first highlighted by The Indian Express and the CBI was asked to probe the killing.

The CBI probe, however, termed it as a simple murder-for-robbery case and chargesheeted four persons in connection with the crime.

Despite being a high-profile murder, trial in the case lingers on. It began in January last year, but still remains in the initial stages. Though, CBI claims that the accused have confessed that they killed Dubey when he resisted their robbery bid, all the three in jail recently declined it when The Indian Express met them in court.

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