Jamshedpur, July 29: The court of the first additional district judge today convicted two persons in the October 2008 murder of Tata Steel security officer Jairam Singh.

The guilty — Manoranjan Singh alias Lalu and Banti Jaiswal alias Om Prakash Bhagat — were the henchmen of dreaded fugitive Akhilesh Singh and nabbed from Calcutta in June 2009.

The Tata Steel official was shot at near his residence close to Baug-e-Jamsheed School in Bistupur police station area in the morning of October 4 that year. He succumbed to bullet wounds at Tata Main Hospital two days later.

Four others — Akhilesh, Santosh Kumar, Gautam Singh and Vikram Sharma — were involved in the murder.

While Santosh, 17, is being tried at a juvenile court, Gautam was killed in a clash with an undertrial at Ghaghidih jail in March 2009.

Akhilesh, who runs an extortion racket in Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, and Vikram are at large.

Assistant public prosecutor V.K. Prasad said eyewitness accounts, material evidence like samples of blood-soaked soil, empty cartridges and the victim’s slippers, and test identification parade carried out by the prosecution five times, led to the conviction of the duo.

The court of first additional district judge Pankaj Kumar will pronounce the sentence on August 1.