The inmate of Room No. 8

Amarmani Tripathi and wife Madhumani may be serving life term for murder, but since their transfer to Gorakhpur jail in 2012, this has mostly been their home.

There are few intrusions, either from prison officials or doctors. Certainly none like July 10, when their son Amanmani was arrested, a day after his 27-year-old wife Sara died under mysterious circumstances.

[related-post]

Local reporters who rushed to Amarmani’s room were turned away. Hospital officials say Room Nos. 8 & 16 have been unusually quiet since.
On July 10, a day after Sara’s death, Amarmani’s brother Ajitmani and daughter Tanushree visited her family. “It was our first visit,” says Ajitmani. “We had never seen her.”

Amanmani was in school when his parents were arrested in 2003 for the murder of Madhumita Shukla, with whom Amarmani had an affair.

The family shares little on how the case involving an unborn child, the then minister, and a budding poetess, which was national news for days, had affected the Tripathis’ middle child.

Ajitmani says Amanmani’s parents put their only son in his care. “We grew up without our parents, but we are very close,” says elder sister Tanushree.

Even Amanmani’s age remains a matter of conjecture. Ajitmani says he should be about 28 now. However, in 2012, countering accusations of being younger than the minimum age of 25 required to contest Assembly polls, Amanmani had said he was 29.

Family members say Amanmani often visits his father in hospital and their relationship is cordial. However, Sara’s relatives say Amarmani was against their marriage. “This had led to fights between the father and son,” says an acquaintance of the Tripathis.

Amarmani, Madhumani

The Medical College Road where Baba Raghav Das Medical College is located is a crowded area. Traffic is chaotic, made worse by water logging.

Patients walking gingerly into Nehru Chikitsalaya, the medical college’s hospital, are greeted with a depressing sight. Its walls have not got a coat of paint in years, and its floors carry signs of permanent grime.

At the farthest end, past the canteen, lie the 32 private rooms. They are in a different, two-storey building, with its own entrance, and with little activity around.

There is one clear reason for this silent corner in a busy hospital. It houses at least seven murder convicts, including the Tripathis. They all shifted here between 2012 and 2013.

Around 10 security persons guard them. A homeguard sometimes sits near the ward but pays little attention to visitors.

At least five pairs of slippers are lined up outside Amarmani’s room. His opponents say the former BSP minister regularly hosts visitors, for “durbars”.

Amarmani and Madhumani have been admitted here since February 27, 2013, and March 13, 2013, respectively. “We send two letters to the medical college every month asking if they are fit to be brought back to prison. The doctors cite various ailments,” says a Gorakhpur prison official requesting anonymity.

A senior doctor, quoting from a hospital report to the prison, describes Amarmani’s diagnosis as “moderate depression with psychic symptoms and lumbar spondylosis” and Madhumani’s as “recurrent depression without psychic symptoms with suicidal ideas”.

While Gorakhpur prison jailor R K Singh says security outside the jail is the responsibility of police, Gorakhpur SSP Pradeep Kumar Yadav says it has to be shared between them and prison officials.

Amarmani and Madhumani were initially lodged in Haridwar jail after their conviction by a Dehradun court in 2007. The trial had been transferred to Uttarakhand on the request of Madhumita’s family.

However, first Madhumani was transferred to Gorakhpur jail, in 2008, and Amarmani followed in 2012, after cases of bounced cheques were lodged against them in nearby Maharajganj. Associates say the cases were a ploy to ensure that the two were kept in Gorakhpur.
“The couple have been in jail for years. How did they issue cheques?And what is their illness which is not getting cured?” asks Congress MLA from Nautanwa, Kunwar Kaushal Singh.

Singh incidentally had defeated Amanmani, then a Samajwadi Party nominee, in the 2012 Assembly elections.

The doctors at the medical college are unwilling to talk about the Tripathis. “The diagnosis of a patient is a confidential matter,” says Dr C P Mal of the psychiatry department.

While there are few visits by doctors to the two rooms, they insist treatment is on. Says Chief Medical Superintendent Dr Ram Yash Yadav, “Doctors go there for checks. That is the routine.” Sunil Arya, the medical college principal, adds, “If somebody is admitted to the hospital, he must be getting his check-ups done and taking medicines.”

On a Wednesday afternoon, a tall man knocks on Amarmani’s door. After a few seconds, he goes over to Madhumani’s room and stands there, appearing to have received some response from inside.

Another person outside Amarmani’s room says the former minister is taking rest as he has high blood pressure. However, there is no activity in his room and it remains unlit till up to 10 pm. By then, there are two constables outside Madhumani’s room.

“Amarmani and Madhumani’s stay in the medical college is a mockery of their sentences,” says Madhumita’s sister Nidhi Shukla, who had led the fight against Amarmani. “A medical board was set up to check their ‘illness’, but nothing happened. Amarmani leaves the hospital at night, goes home and returns the next morning.”

A sprawling house in pink sandstone, encircled by walls and a gate, Mani Bhawan stands out in Durgavani locality of Gorakhpur, just about 10 km from the jail.

Among Amarmani’s other assets are a house each in Lucknow’s Gomti Nagar and Hazratganj areas, two degree colleges, gas agency in Nautanwa, and land in Lucknow, Balrampur and Mahrajaganj districts.

Amarmani started out modestly, in Trilokpur village, just 2 km from the Nepal border, with father Krishna Narayan a sub-inspector. His entry into politics was no different from others like him in eastern UP who start out as strongmen. He shifted his base to near Gorakhpur in the mid-1980s.

He won his first election in 1996 as a Congress candidate, and in 2002, won as a BSP nominee and was made a minister by Mayawati. He was sacked in the wake of the Madhumita murder. While Amarmani already had several cases against him, most till the Madhumita one had collapsed.

Madhumani was identified as the main conspirator in the killing of Madhumita. But few who used to be close to the couple can tell much about her now. The lasting image is of a then 40-year-old who liked paan and who had her own contacts in the network of her husband. “She would lend money, and this was her business, separate from her husband’s,” says a former friend.

The Madhumita murder didn’t dent Amarmani’s political fortunes at first. After the BSP sacked him, he joined the SP.

Jai Prakash Shukla, a resident of Trilokpur village, praises Amarmani for “doing a lot of work”. “Even today his influence persists.”

Others are not so sure. While Amarmani won the 2007 elections from jail, the family has been losing since. His uncle Shyam Narayan Tiwari has not won an election since 2007. His brother Ajitmani lost the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, while Amanmani was defeated in 2012.

Amanmani

A senior functionary at St Paul’s School, where Amanmani studied for three years, recalls him as a “quiet boy”. “There was not one episode involving him,” says the official.

Neighbours say they know little about the family now, especially the younger generation. “Amanmani lived here but he would come out of the house in a car and go inside in a car. He never interacted with us,” says Sajid Ansari.

In his father’s political sphere though, he quickly made his presence felt. He managed the election of his imprisoned father in 2007, and was a part of Ajitmani’s campaign in the 2009 polls. While he himself lost in 2012, his performance was impressive.

Controversies too piled up. In June 2014, two cases were registered against him following a clash involving his supporters. Later, he faced a case of Dalit atrocity. “Police investigation cleared him of the latter charge, but there is a second probe on,” says Circle Officer Shrikant Prajapati.

The case in which Amanmani was finally arrested this month dates back to August last year, when contractor Rishi Kumar Pandey accused him of kidnapping him and demanding Rs 1 lakh. Amanmani was not arrested for nine months, even as he attended political programmes, till Sara’s death made it impossible for police to ignore him.

In April, another Gorakhpur resident, Neeraj Tiwari, accused Amanmani and his associates of assault.

“He is trying to become Amarmani,” says a former Amarmani associate, “but he is not his father.”

Distant relative Vinod Mani Tripathi calls Amanmani “sanskar viheen” (without values). “I told Amarmani, Aman should study. But he said if a politician’s son doesn’t get into politics, what will he do?” he says.

Ajitmani says Amanmani’s adversaries are just jealous of him. He also insists Sara and Amanmani’s marriage was not a big issue for the family. “The younger generation does not listen to anyone.”

A former friend of Amanmani, who calls him “quarrelsome”, also attests that Amanmani “passionately loved” Sara.

The Facebook timelines of Sara and Amanmani show a few romantic comments about each other, as well as others suggesting trouble in the relationship. Amanmani has nearly 3,000 followers, and he religiously follows all comments, liking each.

Sara

A fan of pop music, especially Shakira, Sara liked dressing up. The 27-year-old’s large circle of friends remembers her as wanting to stand out in a crowd. She also talked of going to Delhi to work as a lawyer with a multinational. No one recalls how or when she ran into Amanmani.
“Perhaps it was through some common friends,” is the consensus. Sara’s mother Seema Singh, who is a Congress worker, says she and Amanmani had known each other for just six months when they got married in July 2013.

Sara, a law graduate, was the smartest of her four children, Seema adds. “We had put up her profile on the Bharat Matrimony website and there were a lot of enquiries about her. But she always wanted to marry a person of her choice,” she says.

When Sara did marry, she kept her family in the dark. The family believes Amanmani threatened Sara into marrying him. They talk of an incident of firing outside their house just earlier.

Sara’s elder sister Neeti Mishra believes Amanmani was jealous of Sara’s friends. Her family says she was beaten up by him at least three times. “A year ago, Sara suffered a miscarriage after being assaulted,” Neeti says.

They would advise Sara to get a divorce, the family adds. “She would say yes. And then Aman talked her out of it,” says Neeti. A few weeks ago, Amanmani rented a house near the Singh home and assured that things would be all right. “This was to lower our guard so that we would let Sara go on a trip with him,” says her brother Harsh. “She was so excited about it, she called me to book a hotel in Delhi. The next day she told me Aman had booked a room. I always thought if Aman had to do something to my sister, they would make it look like an accident,” says Harsh.

“Sara would say Aman can do anything. He has killed her,” adds Seema, breaking down. “All children turn to their mothers when in trouble. She may also have called for me (in death).”

Springing to Amanmani’s defence, Tanushree again insists the wedding never bothered the Tripathis. Referring to their lives after the Madhumita case, she adds, “We were picked on in schools, bullied. We are the victims. I know Aman is 120 per cent innocent. I know him.”