Manjunath murder case: Supreme Court sentences six convicts to life imprisonment

The Supreme Court on Wednesday awarded life sentences to six men accused of murdering Indian Oil Corporation sales manager S Manjunath in 2005.

According to reports, Manjunath had exposed an oil adulteration racket in the Lakhimpur Kheri district of Uttar Pradesh. He was shot dead on November 19, 2005 by petrol pump owner Pawan Kumar when he tried to collect samples of adulterated petrol reportedly sold at the petrol pump.

Manjunath was an IIM - Lucknow graduate and was of age 27 when he died.

After Manjunath's death, a pan IIM initiative 'The Manjunath Shanmugam Trust' was set up to fight for the case. Now the initiative has a broader agenda of improving governance in public life.

The issue had attracted a public outcry following which the case was handed to CBI which succeeded in booking the culprits.

Kumar was initially handed the death sentence by a trial court, while seven others were handed life terms. Later, the Allahabad High Court commuted Kumar's sentence to life imprisonment, while two of the other seven were acquitted.

On appeal, a bench of Justice Ranjan Gogoi and NV Ramana, upheld the decisions of the Allahabad High Court. 

(With agency inputs)