Sixteen months after IOC sales manager S. Manjunath was killed, a district court today convicted all the eight accused for murdering the IOC official who exposed a racket in sale of adulterated fuel.

Pronouncing the verdict, Lakhimpur District & Sessions Judge S M A Abidi set March 26 for deciding the punishment.

The murder of Manjunath, an IIM Lucknow graduate, had resulted in nationwide outrage, with IIM alumni, student groups, NGOs, rights groups, and the media campaigning for justice.

The prime accused was Monu Mittal, son of Sulakshan Mittal, who owned the petrol pump in Gola Gokarn in Kheri district at which Manjunath had detected irregularities and ordered closure.

The other seven accused are Devesh Agnihotri, who shot Manjunath, Sanjay Awasthi, Rakesh Anand, Shivkesh Giri, Harish Misra, Vivek Sharma, and Rajesh Verma.

In his 58-page verdict, the judge pronounced all of them guilty of criminal conspiracy and murder, besides destruction of evidence. They were also found guilty under some sections of the Arms Act.

Manjunath was murdered on November 19, 2005, and his body was recovered from an area under the Maholi police station of Sitapur, a district neighbouring Lakhimpur Kheri. Police had arrested Rakesh Anand and Vivek Sharma and seized a vehicle in which they were taking Manjunath’s body. Monu and the rest were arrested later.

Investigators found that Manjunath had visited Gola Gokarn on November 18, 2005, and stayed in a hotel there. The hotel manager, Ramesh Chandra Pandey, and Manjunath’s landlord, Dhanraj Shahni, were among the 23 witnesses presented by the prosecution. Three witnesses had turned hostile.

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