The Supreme Court on Friday rejected to stay the “premature” release of former Uttar Pradesh minister Amarmani Tripathi and his wife Madhumani, who are serving life sentences in the murder of poet Madhumita Shukla.
On a petition filed by the poet’s sister Nidhi Shukla, a bench of Justices Aniuddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi issued notices to the state government, Tripathi (66), and his wife (61) and requested responses within eight weeks.
The Uttar Pradesh prisons department issued an order on Thursday ordering the “premature” release of the Tripathi pair, who have been serving life sentences for their role in Shukla’s murder at her Lucknow apartment on May 9, 2003.
The ruling cited Uttar Pradesh’s 2018 policy on remission because they had completed 16 years of jail, as well as their age and good behavior. The Tripathi couple is currently enrolled in the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur.
Poet Madhumita Shukla, who was pregnant at the time, was murdered, and Amarmani, a minister in Mayawati’s government at the time, was arrested immediately after the crime. His wife was later detained as the key suspect in the murder plot.
The case was initially turned over to the CBCID, then to the CBI. The case was later shifted to Uttarakhand on the Shukla family’s request. In 2007, the CBI court in Dehradun and the Uttarakhand High Court both found them guilty of the crime and sentenced them to life in prison.