Shanmughan Manjunath

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Shanmughan Manjunath (1978 Kolar-2005) was a marketing engineer for the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) who was murdered for opposing corruption in the erstwhile government firm's petrol pumps.

1 Education
2 Opposition to corruption and murder
3 Aftermath
- 3.1 The Manjunath Shanmugam Trust
4 Notes
- 4.1 See also
5 External links

[edit] Education

Manjunath earned his engineering degree from Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering, Mysore, and an MBA from Indian Institute of Management Lucknow.

[edit] Opposition to corruption and murder

While working for the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) in Lucknow, he had ordered two petrol pumps at Lakhimpur Kheri sealed for selling adulterated fuel for three months. When the pump started operating again a month later, Manjunath decided to conduct a surprise raid around November 19, 2005.

Having not heard from his son for three days, at around 9 that night, his father, M Shanmughan, had sent an SMS: "How are you?". There was no reply because that very evening, during his inspection, Manjunath had been abducted, badly beaten up and eventually shot dead. His body, riddled with at least six bullets, was found in the backseat of his own car, which was being driven by two employees of the petrol pump. Both were arrested and the main accused, pump-owner Monu Mittal, was held on November 23 along with four others.

Manjunath's death came close on the heels of Satyendra Dubey's assassination, suspected to have been for similar reasons. Following the murder, there was immense media spotlight on the case. S. Manjunath's batchmates from IIM Lucknow (where he was affectionately called machan) also kept the story alive.

Investigations into the murder are going on.

[edit] Aftermath

Indian Oil Corporation paid Rs. 26 lakhs compensation to the family. The matter of adulteration in diesel was taken up by the Energy Coordination Committee chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. One of the policy remedies being considered is to minimize the subsidy in the price of kerosene (used as cooking fuel by the weaker classes), and to explore alternate mechanisms for implementing the subsidy. Subsequently, several tanker trucks, laden with thousands of liters of kerosene, were seized en route to a district neighbouring Lakhimpur Kheri ^[1].

[edit] The Manjunath Shanmugam Trust

A pan IIM initiative, "The Manjunath Shanmugam Trust" was registered early February. With immediate objectives of fighting the case, they have a broader agenda of improving governance in Indian public life.