Manjunath Shanmugam was born on February 23rd, 1978. He was the oldest of three siblings and leaves behind his parents, a younger brother and sister. His father works in BEML in Kolar Gold Fields, a township about 100 km from Bangalore.

After finishing his engineering from SJCE Mysore, Manjunath completed his MBA from I.I.M Lucknow, and graduated in 2003. He joined IOCL during campus placements, and was the first sales officer to manage the Lakhimpur Khiri region of UP - a known hotbed of petroleum adulteration.

Manjunath was a terrific singer, full of verve and heart, part of the campus band - ‘3.4'. He was popular for his sincerity, honesty and friendliness. He was murdered on 19th November, 2005.

The broader objectives of the Trust (as stated in the Trust Deed) are -

• To establish and maintain an award for any person or persons or institution who are working to uphold the values of truth and honesty in the Indian corporate, government or public matters, in the face of danger to themselves.

• To provide aid to any person or persons or institutions that are fighting a legal battle in the interest of upholding the values of truth, honesty or justice in the Indian corporate, government or public matters. Such legal case may be civil or criminal cases.

• Aid may include legal fees, media costs, travel and related costs.

• To benchmark India to global standards of governance, and fund or otherwise aid actions, which address damages, caused to India by corrupt practices.

To support the trust or know more about their activities, please visit www.manjunathshanmugamtrust.org