Fate of accused in Manjunath case hangs in balance

LUCKNOW: Conviction will be upheld or the culprits will get reprieve from the high court in the sensational murder case of IIM alumni, B Manjunath, an Indian Oil sales manager, in Lakhimpur Kheri. The final arguments are on and will resume on Thursday.
The convicts, Pawan Mittal alias Monu, the capital sentence awardee and seven others awarded life imprisonment, pleaded innocence before the high court on Wednesday.In the crowded court room, the lawyers of B Manjunath's father, Indian Oil Corporation, an association funding the counsel to contest the case and special lawyers of the state government vehemently argued that the offenders had brutally killed the young sales officer, who was only performing his duty of checking adulteration in oil. They demanded the harshest punishment possible for the culprits so that others may be deterred from repeating the crime.
The case, which is entirely based on circumstantial evidence, requires that each and every link should be tightly connected in order to maintain the conviction.
The arguments began in the high court before the bench of Justices KK Mishra and RK Rastogi. For defence, senior Supreme Court lawyer, SK Agarwal opened up his case on Wednesday.
Amid preliminary objections that Indian Oil Corporation and Manjunath's parents cannot engage their individual lawyer to argue the case of prosecution, under the criminal procedure code, the court heard briefs of advocate IB Singh. The special counsel, OP Srivastava and AGA, Umesh Chandra Verma also presented brief arguments. The court asked senior lawyer, Mridul Rakesh to address the court on Thursday from the prosecution side. The hearing of the case will continue on Thursday also.