Lucknow, May 14
The mystery surrounding the murder of a young woman poet here last week has deepened with a mobile phone seized from her residence now said to be in the custody of Uttar Pradesh Minister Amar Mani Tripathi and the “sudden disappearance” of her 12-year-old domestic help Desraj, who had reported the murder first.
The police had claimed to have recovered two mobile phones from slain Madhumita Shukla’s residence but one of them with the No 94150 17015 was now reportedly in the possession of the personal secretary of Stamps Minister Tripathi, sources said.
Police officials were non-committal when asked as to how the phone, which was a crucial evidence, made its way to the minister’s staff.
As the police claimed that the two alleged killers had been identified, Madumita’s domestic help, Desraj, who had named one of the two killers as Satya Prakash, is now said to be missing.
Meanwhile, the police admitted that it was yet to send the foetus of murdered poetess Madhumati Shukla for DNA test to Hyderabad even after five days of the incident.
Senior Superintendent of Police (Lucknow) Anil Aggarwal said UNI here that the foetus sample was kept at a safe place in the Medical University.
The SSP said the case was being investigated at a reasonable pace and “something might crop up very soon”.
The role of the police had come in for sharp criticism in the matter since the very first day when it allegedly refused to register an FIR by Madhumita’s sister.
Though Chief Minister Mayawati had asserted that the investigation would be impartial and the guilty would not be spared, there is a feeling in the political circles that police was under “tremendous pressure’.
In the face of repeated demands by the opposition parties for transfer of the case to the CBI. The government has said that there is proposal to order a
CBI inquiry into the case.
PTI, UNI
