The Supreme Court on Friday declined to stay the release of former Uttar Pradesh Minister Amarmani Tripathi and his wife Madhumani Tripathi, who are both serving life terms for the murder of poet Madhumita Shukla.
The Uttar Pradesh prisons department had on Thursday issued an order for the premature release of the Tripathis, citing the State’s 2018 policy on remission, since the couple have completed 16 years of imprisonment.
A Bench of Justices Aniuddha Bose and Bela M. Trivedi issued notices to the State government, Tripathi and his wife, while seeking their replies within eight weeks on a plea filed by the poet’s sister, Nidhi Shukla.
The prisons department cited that the couple were in their sixties as a reason for their premature release. Tripathi and his wife are currently admitted to the BRD Medical College, Gorakhpur.
Shukla, who was pregnant at the time, was shot dead on May 9, 2003, in Paper Mill Colony, Lucknow. The case was probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation and a Dehradun court had sentenced both the Tripathis to life imprisonment for the murder in October 2007. The Nainital High Court and the Supreme Court later upheld the couple’s sentence.
Tripathi, who was elected from the Nautanva constituency, had been a Minister in the BJP State government in 2001.
