M A I N   N E W S

Tripathi arrested for Madhumita’s murder

Lucknow, September 21
Former Uttar Pradesh minister Amarmani Tripathi was today arrested by the CBI in the poetess Madhumita murder case, more than five months after she was slained, following the matching of his blood sample with the foetus of her child.

A CBI spokesman said in Delhi the arrest was made following the receipt of the report of the DNA test conducted by a laboratory in Hyderabad today.

Tripathi, who was earlier in the day questioned by a five-member CBI team, was taken from his Lawrence Terrace residence this evening to the agency’s local headquarters where he was arrested.

“We have clinching evidence to prove Tripathi’s hand in the murder of Madhumita,” CBI sources said and added that more people could be arrested soon.

Asked if Tripathi’s wife Madhumani, who was also questioned, could be arrested, the spokesman said: “If need be, anyone can be arrested in connection with the case.”

The CBI had earlier quizzed Tripathi three times, twice in New Delhi and once in Lucknow. Besides Tripathi and his wife, their domestic help Gopal was also interrogated by CBI sleuths.

The broad daylight murder of the 24-year-old poetess on May 9 at her residence here had triggered a political storm after it came to the fore that Tripathi had a romantic affair with Madhumita who was six months pregnant at the time of her murder.

The then Chief Minister Mayawati had sacked Tripathi from her ministry and handed over the case to the CBI.

Ever since the relationship between Tripathi and Shukla came to light, the needle of suspicion had pointed towards him.

A five-page letter written by Madhumita to someone with initials “A.M.” revealed the fact that it was Madhumita’s third pregnancy. Twice earlier, she was forced to undergo abortion, the CBI sources said.

The letter also revealed that Madhumita was piqued over Tripathi’s relationship with another girl, they said.

During pregnancy, Madhumita visited a local gynaecologist where she was referred to as “Mrs A.M. Tripathi.”

Air coupons of Tripathi and a letterhead pad bearing Tripathi’s name was recovered by the police from Madhumita’s residence. The slain poetess was using a BSNL SIM card gifted to her by Tripathi.

The sources said Tripathi and Madhumita had travelled out of Lucknow frequently and once in Mumbai they had a heated altercation when the poetess reportedly went to the dance floor of the hotel’s discotheque with another man.

Tripathi had helped Madhumita when she was arrested in Jaipur in 2001 on charges of stealing jewellery from the house of a businessman who had invited her to participate in a kavi sammelan there.

Interestingly, shortly before his arrest, Tripathi held a press conference in Lucknow today claiming his innocence. “I knew her as a poetess and I had no relationship with her. The media was fabricating stories. I am innocent ... not me nor any one from family is involved in this case,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ms Shanti Devi Shukla, the mother of the poetess, expressed satisfaction over the action taken by the CBI and thanked the media for “exposing” those involved in the murder of her daughter”.

“I am happy that he (Tripathi) has been arrested for killing my daughter,” she said.

Ms Shanti Devi admitted she was under tremendous pressure during interrogation because Tripathi was a “blue-eyed boy” of Mayawati. “Everyone was afraid of him, what to talk of us.”

Asked whether she knew right from the beginning if Tripathi was involved in the case, she avoided a direct answer and said: “When everyone knew who was behind the murder, there was no point in our pointing finger at him.”

Asked if the CBI had taken a long time to unearth the murder mystery of her poetess daughter, Ms Shanti Devi said: “No, as several evidences were tampered with. In spite of all these, CBI solved the case”.

Meanwhile, Tripathi was hospitalised after he complained of chest pain and restlessness, the CBI sources said here.— PTI