Fighting against a corrupt bureaucracy and dishonest policemen to help the poor farmers of Assam made Akhil Gogoi the winner of the Manjunath Shanmugam Integrity Award, 2008. Retired IPS officer Kiran Bedi handed him a citation and a cheque of Rs1 lakh at a function held in the Seminar Hall of Indian Institute of Technology, here on Friday.

“When I learnt about S Manjunath and his ideals, I found similarities between us. He stood for justice and I am also fighting for the same ideals. This award is certainly special,” Gogoi, the general secretary of Krishak Mukti Sangram, said. Gogoi was one of the three people/organisations nominated for the Award that was initiated by the Manjunath Shanmugam Trust (MST) in 2006, as a tribute to Manjunath Shanmugam, a young Indian Oil officer and an IIM Lucknow alumnus, who was murdered in the line of duty while fighting corrupt practices.

Last year, the award was given to R P Singh, Vice-Chancellor of Lucknow University, for his fight against corruption and criminalisation of the university system. The other two nominees for this year’s award were Chetan Ram from Urmul Jyoti Sansthan and M N Vijayakumar, an IAS Officer from Karnataka. While Vijaykumar was not allowed by the Karnataka Government to attend the function, his wife Jayasree J N, also a social activist, attended the event on his behalf.

Speaking on the occasion, Subhash Dhar, a volunteer of MST and Vice-President of Infosys, said the awards were initiated to honour and encourage individuals and institutes to keep up the “good work” of upholding honesty and Truth. “All nominees have shown exceptional strength in rectifying corrupt practices under all odds. The award is all about making the right changes,” he said.

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