Gorakhpur, Aug 25: Former minister Amarmani Tripathi and his wife Madhumani Tripathi, who were convicted in poetess Madhumita Shukla, murder case were released following the order of Uttar Pradesh government, official sources said here.
Official sources said that Amarmani and Madhumani were released on furnishing a personal bond of Rs 25 lakh each after serving 20 years jail term. “The couple is currently admitted to Baba Raghav Das (BRD) medical college. The order to release the couple was issued by the Prison Administration and Reforms department on Thursday keeping in view their good conduct while serving the sentence in the jail following the Supreme Court order,” they said.
It may be noted that poetess Madhumita Shukla was shot dead at her Paper Mill Colony residence in Lucknow on May 9, 2003. “Madhumita was seven-months pregnant at the time of her murder. Along with shooters Santosh Rai and Pawan Pandey, Amarmani, his wife Madhumani and nephew Rohit Mani Tripathi were named as the accused in the high-profile murder case,” they said.
Amarmani was a minister in the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) government at the time of the incident. “Initially the government directed the Crime Branch of the Crime Investigation Department (CB-CID) to investigate the case, but it was later transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI),” they said.
While the case was on trial in the court, Nidhi Shukla, sister of Madhumita, moved the Supreme Court requesting to transfer the case out of Uttar Pradesh. “On Nidhi’s petition the SC transferred the case to Uttarakhand in 2005. The Dehradun session court on October 24, 2007 sentenced all the five accused to life imprisonment. Though Amarmani moved the HC and the SC, his conviction was upheld,” they said.
Sources said that recently the SC had advised the government to consider the release of such prisoners who have behaved well in jail. “After this Amarmani also filed a petition in the SC for his release after which the apex court directed the state government to release him on February 10 this year,” they said.
The court in its order stated that Amarmani was 66 years of age and had served 20 years in the jail and keeping in view his good conduct he should be released if not involved in any other case.
