By Varughese Rajan
In a landmark judgment, the Lakhimpur Kheri Sessions Court on Monday awarded death sentence to Pawan Kumar, alias Monu Mittal, in the Manjunath Shanmugham murder case. The seven others have been sentenced to life imprisonment for conspiracy to murder.On Friday, District and Sessions Judge S M A Abidi had pronounced the eight accused as guilty under different sections of the IPC. Manjunath was working as a sales officer with the Indian Oil Corporation when he was shot dead in November 19, 2005. The Indian oil corporation's sales manager had challenged Mittal about the fuel adulteration at his pump and was about to fine him. That was when Mittal and his colleagues shot Manjunath and then hid his body."Justice has been delivered. This is what we had hoped for," said I B Singh, Lawyer, Manjunath Shanmugam Trust.
Manjunath was murdered on 19 of November, 2005 for sticking to his principles. His shock death send cripples across the country. The entire IIML alumni stood up to fight for him. If it was not for the dedication of these Gentlemen, Manjunath's case would have been another example for the inability of our justice department. Today morning one of his friend and the main person behind the Manjunath Shanmugam Trust, Mr. Akhil Krishna was online in radio City. I was surprised to hear that they made it sure either one of them will be present in the court on every hearing. Lakhimpur Kheri , is about 135 km from Lucknow and to make sure that one of them were present in the court does take some inspiration. When Mr. Krishna was asked about what inspired him and his friend to take up such a fight - the oblivious answer came "The Man Called Macha - Manjunath Shanmugam". When I heard about it for the first time, my initial reaction was " Ok, they did for their friend, even i would have done it". But thinking, saying and dreaming is one thing and doing it is different. If it was not for them and their efforts, Manjunath's death would have remained one of this country's most shameful events.
The response to his death and the fight for justice from all over the country, reminds us of the fact that we all crave for heroes like him. It was the unanimous solidarity by his Friends, Media and the People of this country, which made sure that his sacrifice will not be gone unnoticed. His friends set up a Trust in his memory - "The Manjunath Shanmugam Trust". They are planning to fight for justice for all the citizen of this country who are fighting against corruption or similar causes. They have set up a "Right To Information Act Helpline" for assistance for general public about the RTI act. The helpline number is 9250400100. They have also instated "The Manjunath Shanmugam Integrity Award" and the first recipient was Prof. R.P Singh, Vice-Chancellor, Lucknow University, for his courageous work in implementing Lyngdoh Committee recommendations and cleaning up Lucknow University , taking on the might of the entire state assembly.
The most aspiring fact of this trial is that the entire process was completed in 9 months time, which might be a Indian justice department record on its own. But there are some fallouts if we look carefully into the matter. The entire trial was done properly because of the media and public pressure on this case. If you look at the two landmark judgments in recent time - "The Jessica Lal Murder Case" and "The Manjunath Shanmugam Case", both these case were pursued by the public and the media - more importantly the electronic media intervention made it a success. But is this a good trend. The electronic media tends to serve a very selected class of audience, because of that almost all the issues that are raised are concerned with that class of people. This has the fallout of that the "The Justice will only be served to the Privileged" or the poor of this country will not benefit from the new age activism that is sweeping the country. Now come the million dollar question "What is the solution for this problem?", the answer again is oblivious - "The system needs to change", but how? In my humble opinion , we have to make the Law and Justice department accountable for what they are doing. Accountability will bring great change in the way official of these two departments work. Think about this if there is a provision to prosecute a Police officer for neglecting his duty(thereby helping the culprit) the corruption in these two departments will come down. For example - In the Jessica Lal murder trial, in the recent judgment the court observe its surprise that the lower court actually acquitted the culprit even though there was ample evidence to prosecute him. If the Judge was accountable for the Judgments he make, this would have never happen. Now the biggest question "How ill we bring this accountability to these departments?" The answer is I have no idea, in this I am as clueless as those who are reading this article. here is where we can have a discussion about. You are free to suggest your ideas in the comment box.
Always remember treating a disease is expensive, but preventing the disease is Wisdom. Let Manjunath's soul give us the will to fight to make this country a better place to live. Signing of with the this song.....
Manjunath was murdered on 19 of November, 2005 for sticking to his principles. His shock death send cripples across the country. The entire IIML alumni stood up to fight for him. If it was not for the dedication of these Gentlemen, Manjunath's case would have been another example for the inability of our justice department. Today morning one of his friend and the main person behind the Manjunath Shanmugam Trust, Mr. Akhil Krishna was online in radio City. I was surprised to hear that they made it sure either one of them will be present in the court on every hearing. Lakhimpur Kheri , is about 135 km from Lucknow and to make sure that one of them were present in the court does take some inspiration. When Mr. Krishna was asked about what inspired him and his friend to take up such a fight - the oblivious answer came "The Man Called Macha - Manjunath Shanmugam". When I heard about it for the first time, my initial reaction was " Ok, they did for their friend, even i would have done it". But thinking, saying and dreaming is one thing and doing it is different. If it was not for them and their efforts, Manjunath's death would have remained one of this country's most shameful events.
The response to his death and the fight for justice from all over the country, reminds us of the fact that we all crave for heroes like him. It was the unanimous solidarity by his Friends, Media and the People of this country, which made sure that his sacrifice will not be gone unnoticed. His friends set up a Trust in his memory - "The Manjunath Shanmugam Trust". They are planning to fight for justice for all the citizen of this country who are fighting against corruption or similar causes. They have set up a "Right To Information Act Helpline" for assistance for general public about the RTI act. The helpline number is 9250400100. They have also instated "The Manjunath Shanmugam Integrity Award" and the first recipient was Prof. R.P Singh, Vice-Chancellor, Lucknow University, for his courageous work in implementing Lyngdoh Committee recommendations and cleaning up Lucknow University , taking on the might of the entire state assembly.
The most aspiring fact of this trial is that the entire process was completed in 9 months time, which might be a Indian justice department record on its own. But there are some fallouts if we look carefully into the matter. The entire trial was done properly because of the media and public pressure on this case. If you look at the two landmark judgments in recent time - "The Jessica Lal Murder Case" and "The Manjunath Shanmugam Case", both these case were pursued by the public and the media - more importantly the electronic media intervention made it a success. But is this a good trend. The electronic media tends to serve a very selected class of audience, because of that almost all the issues that are raised are concerned with that class of people. This has the fallout of that the "The Justice will only be served to the Privileged" or the poor of this country will not benefit from the new age activism that is sweeping the country. Now come the million dollar question "What is the solution for this problem?", the answer again is oblivious - "The system needs to change", but how? In my humble opinion , we have to make the Law and Justice department accountable for what they are doing. Accountability will bring great change in the way official of these two departments work. Think about this if there is a provision to prosecute a Police officer for neglecting his duty(thereby helping the culprit) the corruption in these two departments will come down. For example - In the Jessica Lal murder trial, in the recent judgment the court observe its surprise that the lower court actually acquitted the culprit even though there was ample evidence to prosecute him. If the Judge was accountable for the Judgments he make, this would have never happen. Now the biggest question "How ill we bring this accountability to these departments?" The answer is I have no idea, in this I am as clueless as those who are reading this article. here is where we can have a discussion about. You are free to suggest your ideas in the comment box.
Always remember treating a disease is expensive, but preventing the disease is Wisdom. Let Manjunath's soul give us the will to fight to make this country a better place to live. Signing of with the this song.....
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