The Manjunath murder trial resumed in the court of District and Sessions Judge SMA Abidi today with the cross-examination of three witnesses. The court had adjourned the trial on August 18 after one of the defence lawyers pleaded he was unwell.

The trial started today with the cross-examination of Babu Khan, a labourer who found the used cartridges from the underground oil tank at Mittal Automobile, the petrol pump at Kheri district where IOC sales officer S Manjunath was allegedly gunned down on November 19 last year. The police had then sought IOC’s help to search the underground tank.

“On November 24, 2005, Babu Khan got into the tank and found three used cartridges,” public prosecutor Chandra Mihan Singh told The Indian Express later.

Besides the three cartridges found in the underground tank, one more cartridge was recovered near the pump machine, the public prosecutor said. The next witness who was cross-examined today was Dr Pankaj Srivastava, the medical expert at Sitapur Hospital who prepared the autopsy report. “He told the court that he prepared the post-mortem report on November 20, 2005,” defence counsel SK Singh told the media.

The court also examined Bhanu Prakash Shukla, the police official who brought the case documents from Mohali Police Station of Sitapur district to Gola Police Station in Lakhimpur Kheri. The trial would continue on Saturday.