Trust in law fueled fight for justice

LUCKNOW: The story of how IIM-L students and people from across the country came together to fight Shanmugam Manjunath’s battle is stuff history is made of. In November 2005, reactions to the murder were flying fast and furious in the IIM e-groups. But one question left unanswered was: what was happening in the case?
That was when Anjali Mullatti an IIM-L ’93 batch alumnus and her husband H Jaishankar of IIM-Bangalore ’91 batch set up the Manjunath Shanmugam Trust in February 2006.“We reached out to anyone who could help,” recalled Anjali, now based in New Delhi.
It was a case of the murder of an IOCL employee, but they took no initiative or interest, regreted Anjali.
In February 2006, Anjali and Jaishankar met advocate Kamini Jaiswal in Delhi. “She directed us to I B Singh, the lawyer and his first reaction was, ‘I will take up this case and will not charge for it’. The amount of effort he put in, along with his team is another story,” said Anjali.
“After the court verdict, investigating officer Pramesh Shukla called us and said, ‘Hum jeet gaye!’ He had guarded some witnesses from turning hostile,” said Anjali.
Manjunath’s best friend Akhil Krishna came to India from The Netherlands and took Manjunath’s parents to Lakhimpur-Kheri and found that two witnesses had backed out. “On March 27, 2007, the eight accused prayed desperately but the judge pronounced them guilty,” said Akhil. After settling permanently in Bangalore, Akhil attended all court hearings in Lakhimpur.
“Students of the 2007 batch missed classes in turns to attend every hearing and mess workers woke up early to pack breakfast,” said Anjali, adding that summer trainees from different IIMs contributed their stipend. 2007 batch student Sushant Pote said, “I was involved in applications inviting process, verification and documentation process for giving Manjunath Integrity awards.”
About people’s participation, Anjali recalled, “A widow from an ashram in Haridwar sent us a cheque of Rs 1,000 from her small income and when we sent it back requesting for only her blessings, she sent us a cheque of Rs 2,000.”
Support from media who covered every hearing, said Anjali, ensured the case was pursued till its logical end.