It's official now: S Manjunath, the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) Lakhimpur Kheri sales manager who died on the job last year, was murdered. That fact was confirmed today by the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) reports after testing the empty cartridges, weapons and blood samples recovered from the crime spot.The IIM-Lucknow graduate was shot dead on November 19 last year after he warned a petrol pump in Lakhimpur Kheri against selling adulterated petrol. Police found his body in a vehicle in Sitapur. The Lakhimpur Police had sent samples from the vehicle and from the murder spot to the FSL for tests.‘‘The FSL report confirmed the spot, vehicle and weapon used in crime. Manjunath’s blood group was O-positive and it matched with blood samples recovered from his clothes, the sand (around the spot) and the vehicle,’’ Gola Police Station Inspector Pramesh Shukla said on Wednesday.‘‘We found during investigation that the accused had tried to scrub the bloodstains from the spot,’’ added Shukla, ‘‘but they failed to remove them completely. We got the blood samples from there, and later also recovered the piece of cloth (used by the accused to remove the stains).’’ The cloth was found buried behind the petrol pump.‘‘We also sent 11 empty cartridges, along with two weapons—a 32-bore pistol and a 32-bore revolver—for testing,’’ said Shukla. ‘‘The ballistic report found that the cartridges were fired from the weapons we recovered. Three cartridges recovered from Manjunath’s body were also fired from these two weapons.’’The police have arrested eight people in connection with the murder—Rakesh Anand, Vivek Sharma, Pawan Kumar Mittal , Lallah Giri, Harish Mishra, Sanjay Awasthi, Rajesh Verma and Devesh Agnihotri. According to Shukla, while Pawan Kumar Mittal (alias Monu) had held the 32-bore pistol during the crime, Devesh Agnihotri carried the revolver. The revolver was licensed to Lakhimpur Tehsil employee Rajesh Verma, who was later arrested.‘‘We could not file the chargesheet in Court without the ballistic and pathology reports,’’ said Zaki Ahmed, the Lakhimpur Kheri SP. ‘‘But now, we will file it soon.’’
