New Delhi, Dec 11: Two days after Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee ordered a CBI inquiry into the murder of IIT engineer Satyendra Dubey, government today 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 400-500 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 and consultants. While his letter to the Prime Minister had raised mainly general issues about perceived procedural shortcomings in the implementation of NHDP, his local communications were very specific. These communications were not marked secret," the release said. Dubey, a Deputy General Manager with National Highways Authority of India (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 National Highway Development Project (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. Bureau Report