A 27-year-old IIM grad was shot to death outside Lucknow last weekend for trying to cleaning up corruption in the gas station industry. Manjunath Shanmugam’s heinous murder shows no good deed goes unpunished:
The IIM Lucknow graduate from Karnataka paid with his life on Saturday afternoon for his crusade against corrupt petrol pump owners… Manjunathan… had become a “nightmare” for Sitapur’s petrol outlets, always dropping in for surprise checks as part of his company’s campaign against adulteration, sources said.
A month ago, he had sealed the Manu Mittal petrol station in Gola on Sitapur Road and blacklisted several others… The police believe that several petrol outlet owners had plotted together to kill Manjunathan… Adulteration of oil — especially diesel – at petrol pumps is a longstanding problem across the country. Diesel is mixed with kerosene, which is subsidised for the poor. [Link]Nathan’s body was recovered from a vehicle in Sitapur district this morning. The vehicle, a Maruti car, reportedly belongs to… the son of Sulakshan Mittal whose petrol pump in Gola area of Lakhimpur district had been sealed by Nathan. [Link]
Having not heard from his son for three days… the father… sent an SMS: ”How are you?” … that evening, Manjunath was beaten up and then riddled with at least six bullets. His body was found in the backseat of his own car. At the wheel, were two employees of the petrol pump, on their way to dispose of the body…
“He was killed for doing his duty,” said a tearful Shanmughan after the cremation. ”He told me many times that he was working in an area with many mafia gangs and that anything could happen to him… He said it is a lawless world and for survival, one has to keep mum even if there are irregularities,” said Shanmughan. [Link]
Indians are bitter:
I am never going to ask another IIM/IIT guy to stay back in India. I always resented the fact that some of our best brains always grew wings and flew out of our country. Not any more….Youths who dare to live for country are killed, and who live for themselves, India call them home and honors them…
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p>It would be interesting to track what happens to the culprits… most pumps in UP are political gifts given by politicians to their goons… [Link]
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p>Gaurav Sabnis remembers Shanmugam:
People always crib about how IIM grads never do anything for the country or don’t join PSUs. Here was one IIM grad who joined a PSU. Did his work honestly and in the right way… And he was murdered in cold blood…
Manju was one of the well known faces on campus… He was the booming voice of “3.4”, our campus band… That cold morning, we got talking… part of his job was to inspect samples from petrol pumps, and report back to the company. The petrol pumps were ideally supposed to adhere to very high standards of purity. But he said the adulteration in the petrol pumps in UP, where he was posted, was usually so rampant, it’s a wonder even a single petrol pump was functioning… He said the reason why this adulteration happened so brazenly was that the dealers knew that no matter what happens, their licenses couldn’t be cancelled. If everyone does it, how many pumps will the company shut down? [Link]
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p>The gas industry is in revolt:
The Oil Sector Officers’ Association threatened to go on an indefinite nation-wide strike from Thursday if the new oil marketing discipline guidelines are not withdrawn and those behind IOC executive B.S. Manjunathan’s murder arrested by then. OSOA president Ashok Singh said the government has been asked to “scrap immediately” the 2005 guidelines which place the entire responsibility of controlling adulteration on sales officers of oil companies…
Singh had earlier said officers of oil companies in Uttar Pradesh would observe a bandh tomorrow to protest the murder. This would be followed by a nation-wide strike the next day if the demands are not met… Singh said it was not possible for an oil company sales officer to carry out the responsibility the new guidelines had thrust on him as he had to supervise over 50 retail outlets stretching over a 300-sq-km area.
He said oil companies would have to be backed by state governments if adulteration had to be effectively checked. The weights and measures department of the state government and the police would have to back the efforts, he added. [Link]
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p>Shanmugam’s was not the first life taken:
Manjunathan’s murder comes almost exactly two years after another young man, IIT Kanpur graduate Satyendra Dubey, was murdered after writing to then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee about corruption… Dubey, a National Highway Authority of India engineer posted in Gaya, Bihar, was gunned down after threatening to expose collusion between NHAI officials and private contractors. A CBI probe concluded Dubey had been killed by highway robbers… [Link]
Why is the fact that he is an IIM grad such an important aspect of the story. Shouldn’t people be focusing more on the corruption and the fact that an honest man was killed for trying to do his job? Isn’t that where the indignation should stem from? How is the fact that he is an IIM grad relevant in this story? Do they mean to say that the killing of a smart person (smart as proven by holding an IIM degree)in this manner is more heinous than if Avg Joe were murdered in a similar situation.
Also, as an aside, IIM Lucknow is at pretty much the bottom of the food chain after Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Calcutta so it’s not like everyone who graduates from there has the option of working in some MNC in Europe or the US. So all those people indignantly talking bout how IIM grads shouldn’t even stay in India anymore need to shove it.
Focus on the fact that a bright, intelligent, honest man was brutally murdered by a corrupt system.
Thanks for blogging about this. Manju or “Machan” was a delightful person. I knew him as a senior from my engineering college in Mysore. I still cannot believe this happened to him. He was very talented, he had a great comedic sense and sang beautifully. We know now what a hero he was. I wish more people had his integrity and balls. Kindly visit this blog and sign a petition. Please support us- we do not want his name to fade away in oblivion. His folks and friends deserve justice.
Manish thanks for bringing this up. SM serves a large audience and this helps.
I personally think its horrible that this happens. I would expect such stuff to happen in China, which is a closed restricted nation, where fundamental rights go for a toss. But for something like this to hapening in India is an abomination.
The MSM has not jumped on it, and its another case of the callous attitude of the media, that they find the time to print crap about the lifestyles of the vain and the infamous, but not about issues and events that change lives…..in this case for the worse.
Unfortunately, this is nothing new in India. A couple of years ago, Satyendra Dubey was murdered while working on the golden quad project, which according to the media was the PM’s pet project.
I think that’s meant to highlight the fact that he could have parlayed his IIM connection to get a better deal for himself rather than place himself in danger by trying to clean up a corrupt system. If he was an average joe I think we would still see this story on SM.
Oh, come on Arzan. Correct me if I am wrong, but the MSM jumped all over the dubey case, but nothing happened. The whole system from top to bottom has rotted to the core.
MRT, i was never referring to the dubey case, of which I am familiar with.
talk about a possible brain-drain candidate doing the right thing… and getting netting a negative result.
go brain-drain!
er whoops!
manish… post editing, por favor.
I dont know how one would define the MSM jumping on it. It was the top banner of the front page f the Indian Express on Thursday. And the lead of the article went something like “Lost in the news of the Bihar Elections…” Call me nuts but the Bihar elections are a pretty big story too. Indian Newspaper Quality generally sucks, but not always.
I agree with everything MJ said here and thanks Sush for the link
MSM wouldn’t even have picked it up if it weren’t for him being an IIML alumnus.
That apart,the TOI Bangalore had it on the front page on thursday.
What a sickening, heart breaking, enraging targedy.
Any goodness and honesty in India gets destroyed by the rancid corruption and evil of those with power.
This is the Indian story – whether it is large scale killings of minorities or good hearted people Manjunath, those with power have absolute impunity. They can get away with murder. Modi, Tytler, all of that scum. The scum are in control of India and they oppress the people and live and murder as tyrants.
Pablo,
From what I heard and read, some Petrol Pump owners who were facing the brunt(Ordered by M to shut down due to selling adulterated Diesel) conspired to murder M ( and succeeded 🙁 ) .
I am not sure if there was any political connection to the killing.
LOTD, Everything about Petrol Pumps in India is political. They are given by allotment, and are basically divied up by political parties as patronage.
It’s a pretty sad story but to be honest many such stories happen all the time. I think I’ve become pretty insensitive to them now. Such callous attitude to life has always been a part of India’s collective nature.
A recrnt story I found worse was this one about a guy who got run over: http://absurdiav.blogspot.com/2005/10/appalling-indian-attitude.html
Varna was right there when it happened too. Pretty harrowing stuff.
Sunny, I know that the guy’s family went through hell literaly but i dont buy the callous attitude bit for even a fraction of a second. The first time i saw the story was on SM then followed by an indian mailing list which still has UP material (despite the regional label being uttaranchal). Both Resident and non-resident Indian were the ones burning midnight oil so that this story gets out.
Completely agree with MJ on the IIM angle. Those are my thoughts too. Why focus so much on his alma mater. Is the IIM degree his greatest achievement? No .. it’s his character and honesty (which unfortunately cost him his life) that define him better than his IIM degree.
Sunny, I know that the guy’s family went through hell literaly but i dont buy the callous attitude bit for even a fraction of a second.
I’m not denying any of that GGK. My point was simply that I hear of so many innocent people like this dying all the time that I have possibly become de-sensitised.
Of course it helps sometimes when one death is used as a rallying point to make a stand against a larger issue. And of course the guy’s family went through hell. But that does not take away the fact that, unfortunately, such killings are all too common in India.
A heartbreaking and shocking story for the Indians who are not capable to take care of their best brains.Such incidents happen in India everyday,many of them go unnoticed and unreported.Politics has taken the worst shape in India.Last time another pathetic story of Satyendra Dubey story also rocked our so called “justice”.
I remember Manjunath who was in my next room in my hostel in SJCE, Mysore. He was one year my junior. He was a great person, a great entertainer and a very friendly person. I have very fond memories of times with him. A tragic loss to India. I hope the offenders are duly punished.
May his soul rest in peace. Please DO sign the online petition.
Sincerely, Ajay.
Heres a story by Ila Patnaik in the indian express http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=82819
Her arguement is that subsidizing kerosene gives incentive to the mafias running adulteration business. She missed another angle that untill very recently ALL petrol pumps were allocated to politicaly connected folks. (they have been given to families of dead soldiers as part of compensation packages also) So there is another mafia that controled who ran the business in the 1st place.
It is sad that money is the answer to an innocent man’s death. No one is fighting it nor has any law come into action. The system is corrupt and has been accepted that way. U work against it n u get killed. Why can’t the media do sumthin about it? IITians and the IIM’s shd come together and initiate action against the murderers. Will the Saudi Arabian law of “eye for an eye” work..I think not, but perhaps the only solution here!
it is very bad day in the history of india.he is an IIM graduate.IIM graduates are offered by lakhs of rupees salary.inspite this he joined in government job.this only tells his honesty.It’s a shame when honest,young bravehearts like Manjunath and Satyendra Dubey have to die when doing their duty.Many of indians have asked the government to take steps to ensure that their Manjunaths and Dubeys are not murdered again.
thanks for giving us this information it will help the people to be be polite to their country and also their sons & grand son to be helpful to make their country a free from all corruption activity
in a few days, its going to be a year since this incident happened… dont know how far justice has happened.. Not sure if I have done my bit in this fight for justice. Just remembered today… and filled with tears..