All 8 accused held guilty in Manjunath murder case

PTI - The Navhind Times

Lakhimpur-Kheri (UP), March 23 Sixteen months after the sensational killing of Indian Oil sales manager, S Manjunath, a district court today convicted all the eight accused for murdering the whistle-blower who exposed a racket in selling of adulterated fuel.

Pronouncing the verdict in a packed court room, district judge, Mr S M A Abidi said that he has reached the conclusion that all the eight were guilty in the murder of the IIM-Lucknow graduate on November 19, 2005.

They were convicted under sections 302 (murder), 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and 201 (destruction of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code and provisions of the Arms Act.

On the plea of the defence counsel that time was needed to prepare their submission, Abidi fixed on Monday for hearing of arguments on the quantum of punishment.

Manjunath was shot dead at a petrol pump in Gola area in this district after he threatened to cancel the licence of petrol pump owner Pawan Mittal for selling adulterated fuel.

Besides Mittal, the others convicted were Devesh Agnihotri, Sanjay Awasthi, Rakesh Anand, Shivkesh Giri, Rajesh Verma, Harish Mishra and Vivek Sharma. They were present in the courtroom when the verdict was pronounced. While Harish Mishra had earlier been enlarged on bail, the rest were in the jail.

The killing of Manjunath had evoked sharp reaction from the industry, IIM students and alumni and several social organisations, which had demanded stern punishment to the guilty. Earlier, media personnel had to face the ire of the defence lawyers and several of them were forcibly pushed out of the courtroom as soon as the judge came in to deliver the verdict.

Even after the judgment was pronounced, the convicts and a section of the lawyers raised slogans against the large contingent of print and electronic media persons.

Some of the convicts even tried to break the police cordon and move towards the media people while being escorted back to the waiting police van for being transported to the jail but were thwarted by the security personnel.

A day after the murder, Manjunath’s body was recovered from a car in Maholi area in the neighbouring Sitapur district. Rakesh Anand and Vivek Sharma, who had gone to Sitapur to dispose of the body, were caught there.

The police filed the chargesheet in the case on February 15, last year and the trial began on March 9. Charges under the IPC and the Arms Act were framed on May 19 and the examination of the witnesses began from June 5.

As many as 23 witnesses were examined during the trial of whom three turned hostile after having giving their statements to the police.

The court had on March 9, last reserved its judgment after the counsel for the prosecution and defence submitted rulings of the Supreme Court and High Courts to buttress their contention.

List of good officials

Name	Designation	Department	Govt/Company	Area/Location	City	State
Swatanter Kumar	Chief Justice	Bombay High Court	Govt of India		Mumbai	Maharashtra
Rakesh Kumar Khanna	Court Commissioner	Demolition of Encroachments	Govt of Delhi	Rohini Zone	New Delhi	Delhi
Sanjiv Bhandari	Court Commissioner	Demolition of Encroachments	Govt of Delhi	East Delhi	New Delhi	Delhi
Siddharth Mridul	Court Commissioner	Demolition of Encroachments	Govt of Delhi	South Zone	New Delhi	Delhi
Pushkar Sood	Court Commissioner	Demolition of Encroachments	Govt of Delhi	Karol Bagh, NDMC areas
Sanjay Bansal	Court Commissioner	Demolition of Encroachments	Govt of Delhi	Central Zone
Arvind Kumar Gupta	Court Commissioner	Demolition of Encroachments	Govt of Delhi	Civil Lines Zone
Akshay Bipin	Court Commissioner	Demolition of Encroachments	Govt of Delhi	West Zone
Kirti Uppal	Court Commissioner	Demolition of Encroachments	Govt of Delhi	City, Sadar, Paharganj
Sanjeev Ralli	Court Commissioner	Demolition of Encroachments	Govt of Delhi	Najafgarh Zone
A P Ranjan	Executive Engineer	PHED	Govt of Bihar	Adhaura Block	Kaimur District	Bihar

CBI arrests former Nithari police officer

HindustanTimes.com » Buried in Nithari » Story

Tushar Srivastava

New Delhi, March 21, 2007

Investigators in the Nithari serial-killing case on Wednesday arrested a dismissed police officer on charges of trying to shield the accused Moninder Singh Pandher and Surender Koli, when the case first surfaced in December last year.

Simranjit Kaur, a former Uttar Pradesh police sub-inspector who was in charge of the Nithari police post, was questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for two hours after which she was arrested.

“Kaur was arrested in the case relating to the rape and murder of 26-year-old Payal. She was the first investigating officer of the case,” said CBI spokesman G Mohanty. “Investigations have revealed that she took gifts and gratification for herself and others from accused Moninder Singh Pandher and framed incorrect records with the intent to save Pandher and his servant Surender Koli from legal proceedings and punishment in the case.”

Pandher and Koli, accused of killing several children and women, were arrested after the recovery of skulls and other skeletal remains from the drains outside Pandher’s house in Noida, bordering Nithari. The CBI, which took over the case on January 10 following a public outcry over police inaction, has registered 18 cases of murder.

List of corrupt officials

Name	Designation	Department	Govt/Company	Area/Location	City	State
Chiranji Lal	Billing clerk	Horticulture Department	Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD)		New Delhi	Delhi
Chanderkesh	Record keeper	Sub-Registrar’s office	Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD)	Kashmere Gate	New Delhi	Delhi
Rajendra Singh	Sub-Inspector	Delhi Police	Govt of Delhi	Police station (PS) Sultanpuri	New Delhi	Delhi

MCD official sent to prison for taking bribe

Hindustan Times, New Delhi
Friday, March 15, 2007

A LOCAL court on Thursday sentenced a suspended employee of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to two-and-a-half years in prison for accepting bribe from a colleague to clear his salary arrears seven years ago.

Special Judge Sunil Gaur, holding Chiranji Lal, 42 a former billing clerk, guilty of receiving Rs 1,000 from Om Pal, then working with MCD’s Horticulture Department, slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 on him.

“From the evidence on record and the circumstances of the case, it becomes crystal clear that the acceptance of bribe money by the accused was conscious and voluntary,” the Judge said in his order.

PTI

Govt staffer convicted for graft

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 21, 2006

An employee in a Sub-Registrar’s office was sentenced to an year’s rigorous imprisonment by a special court almost 13 years after he took Rs 250 as bribe for supplying the certified copy of a property deed.

Special Judge Sunil Gaur found convict Chanderkesh, a record keeper in the Sub-Registrar’s office at Kashmere Gate, guilty of offences under various provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 3,000 on the convict.

Complainant Madhu had approached the convict on April 27, 1993 to get a certified copy of the deed of her house located on Najafgarh Road. The government official demanded Rs 250 for the service.

She filed a complaint with the Anti-Corruption Branch which laid a trap for the convict at his office the next day and caught him red-handed while accepting the bribe.

Sub-inspector sent to police custody for graft

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 23, 2006
A city court today sent a Delhi Police Sub-Inspector, arrested while allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 25,000, to a day’s police custody. Additional Sessions Judge Sunil Gaur granted the prosecution request for custodial interrogation of Sub-Inspector Rajendra Singh till tomorrow.

Singh, posted at police station Sultanpuri in North Delhi, was arrested today while allegedly taking bribe of Rs 25,000 by complainant Veerawati. According to the prosecution, Singh was demanding Rs 50,000, which was later settled at Rs 25,000, as illegal gratification for not arresting the complainant in a cheating case.

Veerawati had purchased a plot through a property dealer Rajesh, which was later found to be belonging to someone else, the prosecution said.

41 pc rise in criminal cases against Delhi Police officials

Vijaita Singh, New Delhi, March 6, 2007

THERE HAS been a disturbing 41 percent increase in the number of criminal cases against Delhi Police officials in 2006 as compared to 2005. In other words, 84 criminal cases were registered against Delhi Police officials in 2006 as against 59 in 2005.

Policemen were booked in cases like rape, murder, kidnapping, extortion, theft and fraud.

The total number of police officers arrested for such crimes stood at 37. And the arrested included an inspector and five sub-inspectors.

In all, 27 police officers were arrested on bribery charges by the Vigilance Department in 2006. In fact, the figure seems to be on the rise even this year. A few days ago, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had arrested an Assistant Commissioner of Police posted with the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police on charges of extorting money from a Jaipur-based diamond merchant.

These figures were part of the annual report of the Delhi Police, submitted in Parliament on Tuesday by Minister of State for Home S. Reghupathy. The report said that a majority of the arrested policemen were either constables or head constables.

According to the report, 46 policemen were arrested for criminal offences in 2004 while 36 were arrested in 2005.

Several steps have been initiated to keep policemen under constant scrutiny. These measures include surprise checks by senior officers, transfer of policemen with criminal records to non-sensitive posts, strict legal action and establishment of public grievance cells.