Former UP minister and sitting SP MLA Amarmani Tripathi, his wife Madhumani and two others were today held guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of poet Madhumita Shukla in Lucknow on May 9, 2003.Dehradun district and sessions judge V B Rai, who took just five minutes to pass the orders, said Amarmani, Madhumani, their relative Rohit Chaturvedi and Santosh Rai were guilty of conspiring and murdering Madhumita. Another accused, Parkash Pandey, was acquitted for want of evidence.The four were also slapped fines of Rs 50,000 each. Amarmani got an additional year in jail for wrongful confinement and threats to Anuj Mishra who had been forced to claim that he had married Madhumita. She was pregnant when she was murdered.The prosecution said that Madhumita had an affair with Amarmani and his wife objected to it. She was murdered at the behest of Madhumani.Amarmani was a BSP minister at the time of the murder. Removed by Mayawati, he successfully contested the Assembly elections from Maharajganj on a SP ticket while the trial was on. Meanwhile, SP leader Amar Singh has said the verdict against Amarmani was not the “ultimate” decision and he had the right to approach higher courts.Foetus DNA, stains and phone recordsKey to the conviction:• After getting DNA samples from foetus, from Madhumita’s mother and Amarmani himself, CBI found a drawer-full of Madhumita’s underwear• Eight garments were sent to the Hyderabad lab which located DNA samples from semen stains. This matched that of Amarmani• 20 SIM cards used by Amarmani and 12 used by his wife Madhumani led to the hired killer Santosh Rai.• 15-sec call made to one of Madhumani’s mobile phones at 3.31 pm led CBI to someone unconnected with the murder who gave the vital clue how the phone on the fateful day (May 9, 2003) had been “lent” by him to Santosh Rai.
