Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, August 25: The release of former Uttar Pradesh minister Amarmani Tripathi and his wife Madhumani, who are serving life sentences in connection with the murder of poet Madhumita Shukla, was not stayed by the Supreme Court on Friday.
On Thursday, Amarmani Tripathi was ordered to be prematurely released by the Uttar Pradesh prisons department, in accordance with the state’s 2018 remission policy, as they had served 16 years of their sentence.
In response to a petition submitted by the poet’s sister Nidhi Shukla, a bench comprising Justices Aniuddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi issued notices to the state government, Tripathi and his wife, asking for their responses within eight weeks.
The prisons department also cited Amarmani and Madhumani’s ages and good behaviour, the official added while quoting the order. Amarmani is 66 and Madhumani is 61.
Amarmani Tripathi and his wife are currently admitted to the BRD Medical College, Gorakhpur.
A pregnant poet named Madhumita was fatally shot in Lucknow’s Paper Mill Colony on May 9, 2003. In connection with the death of the poet with whom he was supposedly in a relationship, Amarmani Tripathi was detained in September 2003.
Amarmani Tripathi and his wife Madhumani Tripathi were given life sentences for the murder in October 2007 by a court in Dehradun. The couple’s punishment was later upheld by the Nainital High Court and the Supreme Court. The CBI investigated the matter.