INDIA BUSINESS WORLD - APRIL 2007
The Month that was ...

GALLOWS FOR PETROL PUMP OWNER IN MANJUNATH MURDER CASE

AGHAST over how an unarmed man was put to death without provocation, a district court on Monday sent to gallows a petrol pump owner for murdering Indian Oil executive Manjunath, who had exposed a thriving racket in sale of adulterated fuel.

While awarding death sentence to Pawan Kumar Mittal, the prime accused, 16 months after the murder of the 27-year-old IIM-Lucknow graduate, district judge S M A Abidi, sentenced seven other accused to life imprisonment.

Delivering the verdict before a packed court room after a year-long trial, the judge described the killing of the whistle-blower as a rarest of rarest cases. Manjunath was shot dead at a petrol pump in Gola area in Lakhimpur Kheri district on November 19, 2005 after he threatened to cancel Mittal's license for selling spurious fuel.

While handing over the capital punishment to Mittal, the judge said the sentence shall remain suspended and will not be executed unless it was confirmed by the High Court.

"It is a planned murder... the victim was unarmed when put to death... he was put to death without provocation... hence I reach the conclusion that it is rarest among the rare cases so far as Pawan Mittal is concerned," the judge said. He added that it was a "crime where a person, whose duty was to check adulteration and other irregularities at the petrol pump, was put to death".

The convicts, who got life sentence, are Devesh Agnihotri, Sanjay Awasthi, Rakesh Anand, Sheokesh Giri, Harish Mishra, Vivek Sharma and Rajesh Verma. The accused were convicted last Friday for Manjunath's murder which triggered a sharp reaction from the oil industry, IIM students and alumni and several social organizations.

The eight accused were present in the court room when the judge pronounced his verdict. They betrayed no emotions. One IIM-Lucknow student was present in the court.

They were also sentenced to imprisonment ranging from six months to seven years under different sections of the IPC. The accused also face seven years imprisonment and slapped a fine of Rs 8,000 each under section 120 B (criminal conspiracy). All the sentences will run concurrently.

The district court said the judiciary has to also act as corrective machinery so that the society and particularly its system might not be shaken. It said that Mittal was not only the planner of the murder but also its executor.

During arguments, the prosecution sought death penalty for Mittal, Devesh Agnihotri and Rajesh Verma, while the Defense pleaded for leniency. The prosecution lawyers later told that they would press for capital punishment for Agnihotri and Verma in the High Court while the defense lawyers said they would challenge the verdict.

Elaborate security arrangements were made on the court premises and a large number of security personnel had been deployed in the light of the assault on some scribes on Friday by a section of the lawyers sympathetic to the accused. Immediately after the verdict, a section of lawyers and some people took out a procession in the court compound hailing the judgment.