For 6 murder convicts, ‘jail’ for past year has been this medical college in Gorakhpur

Two of them, former Uttar Pradesh minister Amarmani Tripathi and wife Madhumani, may be the first to exit. The Gorakhpur District Jail Superintendent has sent a letter to Chief Medical Superintendent, BRD Medical College, seeking a report on the medical condition of the couple and directing that if they were fit for travel, they should be sent back to an Uttarakhand jail.

Confirming that he had received the letter, Chief Medical Superintendent Dr A K Srivastava said, “I have forwarded it to the doctors looking after them for their opinion.”

Among the other four is former Samajwadi Party Gorakhpur district president Gopal Yadav.

The hospital set up a committee to prepare a health report on the six convicts after a local diagnostic centre owner complained to the district judge, Gorakhpur, alleging harassment by the convicts.

“The diagnostic centre owner alleged that the prisoners threatened him over the phone to alter their medical reports as per their requirement,” said Dr Srivastava, who headed the committee.

At the hospital, doctors and patients complain about the high-profile prisoners holding durbars in their private rooms, including with former gang members.

Another lawsuit on the long prisoner stays at this hospital relates specifically to Amarmani and Madhumani, who were sentenced to life for the murder of Madhumita Shukla in Lucknow in 2003. They were sentenced by the district court of Dehradun in Uttarakhand after the Supreme Court shifted the trial there. In January 2009 though, Madhumani was shifted to Gorakhpur jail as she had to attend hearings in other cases in that city. Amarmani was shifted to the Gorakhpur jail too in March 2012. Though there is no trial pending against the two in UP at present, they continue to stay in Gorakhpur.

It was in February 2013 that Amarmani got himself admitted to the BRD Medical College. Madhumani was admitted a month later.
Madhumita’s elder sister Nidhi Shukla has made several representations to the authorities concerned, including UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, on Amarmani and his wife having made mockery of their imprisonment.

The ‘ailing’ convicts

* Gopal Yadav (ex-Samajwadi Party leader): Sentenced to life in October 2010. He has appealed against the judgment in the Allahabad High Court. Hospitalised since April 26, 2012, for ‘depression’, ‘hydrocele surgery’.

* Ram Milan Yadav: Officially in jail since December 2007, he was sentenced to life in April 2013 for murder. Two months before that, he got himself hospitalised for ‘depression’ and ‘suicidal tendencies’. He has stayed in hospital since.

* Ramayan Yadav: Imprisoned in jail in August 2007, and sentenced for life for murder. Yadav has been in hospital since February 2014 for ‘depression’.

* Amarmani Tripathi: Sentenced to life imprisonment in October 2007 for murder, he was shifted to Gorakhpur jail in March 2012. In February 2013, he moved to the Gorakhpur medical college, complaining of ‘pain in abdomen and lower back’, and ‘nausea’.

* Madhumani, wife of Amarmani: Sentenced to life in the same case as husband, she was moved to Gorakhpur jail in January 2009. In March 2013, she shifted to the hospital. Doctors say she is suffering from ‘depression’, ‘suicidal tendency’.

* Markandey Shahi: Sentenced to life in December 2009 in a murder case registered in 1987. Shahi shifted to the hospital in October 16 2012. Doctors says because of his failed hip replacement, he needs another surgery.