Mr Honey Trapped

Ironies couldn8217;t get sharper. Amarmani Tripathi is the son of a police officer. He made his political debut in 1981 as Communist Party ...

Ironies couldn8217;t get sharper. Amarmani Tripathi is the son of a police officer. He made his political debut in 1981 as Communist Party candidate for the Laxmipur assembly constituency, part of Uttar Pradesh8217;s Gorakhpur district. Old definitions have blurred and old lines been redrawn. Laxmipur is now part of Maharajganj district. That8217;s not all that has changed. Amarmani too has come a long, long way.

The onetime alleged communist has been just been forced out of office as minister of state for stamp and registration. His flamboyant lifestyle makes for bazaar gossip. He faces 36 criminal cases. Most recently, he has been questioned by the police about his relationship with Madhumita Shukla.

Shukla, 24, was shot and killed at her Lucknow residence on May 9. The opposition pointed fingers at Tripathi and his family, which allegedly disapproved of the minister8217;s 8216;8216;friendship8217;8217; with pregnant Shukla. The controversy led to Tripathi being sacked by Chief Minister Mayawati.

Tripathi has something of an eerie presence in Lucknow8217;s power circles. His boisterous laugh, rapidly moving eyeballs and reputation for sensual pleasures have made him quite a character. He walked around with three or four cellphones in the days when the now ubiquitous mobile was still a luxury.

As minister, he was seen less in office and more in the chief guest8217;s seat, at fashion shows, kavi sammelans poetry festivals and the like. It was at a kavi sammelan in Tripathi8217;s home district that Shukla was introduced to him. The two travelled far8212;on official tours, to Mumbai hotels, into notoriety.

While Tripathi pleads innocence the circumstantial evidence is damning. Mobile phone bills, travel coupons and letterheads bearing Tripathi8217;s name were found at Shukla8217;s house. So was the minister8217;s horoscope.

Madhumita8217;s diary, now in police custody, says it all, 8216;8216;I have gone for abortion twice and this time too I am being pressurised 8230; I want to bear the pain of a mother.8217;8217;

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Tripathi,56, began his career as a humble gunman working under Harishankar Tiwari, now a minister himself but in the 1970s a ganglord in the badlands of eastern Uttar Pradesh. Tiwari led a Brahmin gang that thrived on the manipulation of railway and PWD contracts in the sprawling lawlessness of Gorakhpur.

In 1996, Tripathi came into the limelight when he helped split the Congress and became a minister in Kalyan Singh8217;s defector-backed BJP government. As minister of state for trade tax, he frequently faced corruption charges. Trouble began when Rajnath Singh became chief minister. Just before the state election in early 2002, Tripathi was sacked and sent to jail for allegedly patronising a kidnapping syndicate. An angry Tripathi joined hands with Mayawati and was re-elected on a BSP ticket. Soon he was back as minister, back as a chief ministerial favourite 8212; Mayawati used his skills to split the Congress and the Apna Dal 8212; and back as the man no police officer dared question.

Not until Madhumita died; and Tripathi was, almost literally, honey trapped.