Former minister of Uttar Pradesh, Amarmani Tripathi, and his wife Madhumani Tripathi, both serving life imprisonment in the Madhumita Shukla murder case, have been ordered to be released by the Uttar Pradesh government after completing 20 years of their sentence on the basis of good conduct.
This order has been issued by the Prison Administration and Reforms department with the permission of Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel.
With this order, the Tripathi couple, who are serving their sentence in Gorakhpur jail, will be freed from the walls of the prison on filling the bonds.
The Central Bureau of Investigation probe proved that Madhumita was shot dead on May 9, 2003 in Paper Mill Colony, Lucknow at the behest of Madhumani. The CBI had filed a charge sheet against Amarmani and Madhumani and other accused in the Dehradun court. On October 24, 2007, the Dehradun court convicted Amarmani, his wife Madhumani, nephew Rohit Chaturvedi and shooter Santosh Rai and sentenced them to life imprisonment in the Madhumita Shukla murder case. At the same time, another shooter Prakash Pandey was acquitted due to lack of evidence, He was later sentenced to life imprisonment by the Nainital High Court, which found him also guilty.
The murder of young poetess Madhumita Shukla in Paper Mill Colony, Lucknow on May 9, 2003 not only created a stir in the corridors of power, but this murder also led to the downfall of then MLA and minister Amarmani Tripathi of Gorakhpur’s Nautanwa assembly constituency (formerly Laxmipur). His entire political career ended and he had to spend two decades in jail as a convict of this murder.
Tripathi, then a minister in the Mayawati government, was seen as the Bahujan Samaj Party supremo’s right-hand man and had initially claimed he had nothing to do with the cold-blooded murder.
From the small town of Lakhimpur Kheri, Madhumita Shukla, who recited poetry at forums in the 1990s, soon became a well-known personality of the state capital Lucknow and the main reason behind this was Amarmani Tripathi. Soon Madhumita and Amarmani’s relationship became so deep that she became a thorn in the eyes of Amarmani’s wife Madhumani. It is also said that Amarmani Tripathi had given a flat to Madhumita in Paper Mill Colony to live in. There was such closeness between the two that Amarmani started spending lavishly on her. To oust Madhumita from Amarmani’s life and considering her as a thorn in her life, Madhumani conspired to kill her.
It was revealed in the CBI investigation that Madhumita had a physical relationship with Amarmani, due to which Madhumani, wife of Amarmani, conspired to kill her. The post-mortem report also revealed that Madhumita was pregnant and the DNA test revealed that the unborn child of Madhumita was fathered by Amarmani Tripathi. Madhumita had terminated her pregnancy two times, but when she became pregnant for the third time, she refused to undergo abortion. Amarmani then hired shooter Santosh Rai to get her out of the way.
