One of the convicts serving life imprisonment for the sensational 2005 killing of Indian Oil Corporation official and whistleblower S Manjunath has been released from prison following good conduct, a jail official said on Saturday.
Targeted by the oil adulteration mafia, Manjunath (27), an alumnus of IIM Lucknow, was gunned down in Gola area of Lakhimpur Kheri on November 19, 2005 after he threatened to cancel a petrol pump’s licence for selling spurious fuel.
"Shivkesh Giri alias Lalla, who was serving life imprisonment, had completed 16 years. He was released from district jail on January 8. He had shown good conduct," jailor of Lakhimpur Kheri district jail Pankaj Kumar Singh told PTI.
Giri and five other accused were serving life imprisonment in Lakhimpur Kheri district jail for killing of Manjunath, who hailed from Karnataka.
The Supreme Court had in March 2015 upheld the life imprisonment awarded to the six men by the high court.
The killing had sparked massive outrage. Police had filed a charge sheet against eight persons. A sessions court had sentenced the main accused and petrol pump owner Pawan Kumar Mittal alias Monu to death, while seven others were awarded life imprisonment.
The accused moved the Allahabad High Court, which on December 12, 2009 commuted Mittal’s punishment to life imprisonment.
Two of the accused — Harish Mishra and Sanjay Awasthi — were acquitted.
The life imprisonment of the other five — Shivkesh Giri alias Lalla, Vivek Sharma, Devesh Agnihotri, Rakesh and Rajesh Verma — was upheld.
