The hearing in the murder case of IOC sales officer Manjunath was postponed till Wednesday by the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court.

I B Singh, a senior lawyer who is appearing in the case on behalf of the Manjunath Shanmugam Trust, said the defence lawyer informed the court that a retired judge of the Delhi High Court S K Aggrawal would argue the case of the eight convicted persons. “The court wanted to know as to when the retired judge would arrive to argue the case. The defence would communicate this to the court on Wednesday,” the lawyer said.

Singh said the eight convicted persons, including Pawan Kumar alias Monu, had moved the High Court against the judgment of the Lakhimpur District and Sessions Court.

In March 2007, the District and Sessions Court had sentenced Monu to death while awarding life terms to seven other accused.

“The death sentence awarded to Monu has been referred to the High Court. The other appeal is filed by the eight persons against their conviction in the case,” Singh said. Besides Monu, the other convicts are Devesh Agnihotri, Sanjay Awasthi, Rakesh Aanand, Shivkesh Giri, Harish Mishra and Vivek Sharma. Monu is the son of a petrol pump owner.

The murder of Manjunath, who was an IIM-L graduate, had sent shockwaves across the country.

He had undertaken efforts to check adulteration of kerosene with petrol and diesel.

He was killed at a Gola Gokarn petrol pump in Lakhmipur district on November 19, 2005. His body lying inside a Maruti car was recovered from an area under Mahauli police station of Lakhmipur’s neighbouring district Sitapur on November 20.