Mail News Service
Uttarakhand, July 16: The Uttarakhand High Court has today dismissed the Criminal Appeal filed by four convicted accused persons, namely Amarmani Tripathi, the then minister in the Govt of UP; his wife Madhumani Tripathi; Rohit Chaturvedi & Santosh Kumar Rai and has upheld their life imprisonment awarded by the Trial Court in Dehradun on October 24, 2007. The High Court has also allowed the Criminal Appeal filed by CBI against the acquittal of chargesheeted accused Prakash Chandra Pandey and sentenced him to undergo Life Imprisonment.
CBI had registered the case on 24.06.2003 on the request of Uttar Pradesh Government. Initially, the case was registered at Police Station Maha Nagar, Lucknow(U.P).
Madhumita Shukla, a budding poetess, was allegedly murdered on May 9, 2003 at her house in Nishatganj, Lucknow by two unidentified persons around 3:15 PM and the postmortem revealed that she was seven months pregnant at the time of her murder .
During investigation into this blind murder case, CBI meticulously conducted investigation & examined more than 200 witnesses and collected numerous documents.
The weapon used in the murder was also seized. It was found that Madhumita Shukla was murdered pursuant to a criminal conspiracy hatched by Amarmani Tripathi, his wife Madhumani Tripathi & Rohit Chaturvedi who engaged accused Santosh Kumar Rai and Prakash Chander Pandey to murder the poetess. During further investigation, it was revealed that Madhumita Shukla was being pressurised by Amarmani Tripathi to abort the child she had conceived through her relations with Amarmani Tripathi. It was also revealed that after the murder of Madhumita Shukla, Amarmani Tripathi wielded his influence to derail the investigation.
He hatched a conspiracy with then Sub-Inspector of Police, Yagya Narain Dixit, to allege that the foetus found in the womb of Madhumita Shukla was not his but that of one Anuj Mishra, a student of IIT Kanpur.
After thorough investigation, CBI filed a charge sheet against Amarmani Tripathi, Rohit Chaturvedi, Santosh Kumar Rai, Prakash Chander Pandey, Yagya Narain Dixit and Madhumani Tripathi on 19.12.2003 in the Designated Court at Lucknow. Yagya Narain Dixit, the then Sub-Inspector of Police died during trial.
The trial of the case was transferred out of the State of Uttar Pradesh to Uttarakhand under the directions of the Supreme Court of India, which had also directed that the case must be tried on a day-to-day basis. After a trial that spanned more than 8 months, the Court of the District and Sessions Judge at Dehradun on October 24, 2007, convicted four accused persons (Amarmani Tripathi, his wife Madhumani Tripathi, Santosh Kumar Rai Prakash & Rohit Chaturvedi) and sentenced them to undero Life Imprisonment. However, the Court acquitted Prakesh Chander Pandey, who visited the house of Madhumita Shukla along with Santosh Kumar Rai on 9th May, 2003 where she was shot dead.
The High Court t upheld the Life Imprisonment to all t and further awarded Life Imprisonment to the 5th accused .
Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/high-court-upholds-life-imprisonment-of-minister/
