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Journalism of Courage
INSIDE jail or out of it, Amarmani Tripathi has always benefited from lucky breaks in his 40-year political career. The biggest came on Thursday, when the Uttar Pradesh government announced his and his wife Madhumani’s release in a murder case, after having served 17 years of their term, large parts of it spent in hospital, on various grounds.
However, can the ex-UP minister and four-time MLA, who has been associated with all the four major parties of the state – Congress, Samajwadi Party, BSP and BJP – and won an election from jail, reclaim his clout, remains a question.
The 66-year-old was once counted among the biggest Brahmin leaders of the Poorvanchal region of UP, whose say ran across his native district Maharajganj, which touches the Nepal border, as well as adjoining districts, including Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s turf of Gorakhpur.
Amarmani first proved his mettle when he took on Virendra Pratap Shahi, an influential Thakur leader of the area. Amarmani lost the 1981 and 1985 Assembly elections against Shahi, but the contests between leaders of the two dominant castes of UP sealed Amarmani’s standing as the Brahmin face to watch in the region.
Later, he would win in 1989, 1996, 2002 from the Lakshmipur Assembly seat in Maharajganj. After it was merged with Nautanwa following delimitation, he won in 2007 from Nautanwa.
In 2003, Amarmani was convicted for the murder of Madhumita Shukla, with whom he had relations, and had to step down as minister. But, as late as 2017, his son Amanmani won an Assembly election from Nautanwa thanks to his influence.
The Adityanath government ordered the premature release of Amarmani and Madhumani Tripathi as part of a policy framed by it on the premature release of convicts.
However, Amarmani might find the outside political world much changed, with Gorakhpur now firmly under the grip of Adityanath, most of the political parties in UP struggling against a dominant BJP, and the BJP too comfortably placed to bet on a murder convict. The party is likely to be content with any goodwill coming its way due to Amarmani’s release, with the BJP’s ties with Brahmins needing some repair.
Plus, the issue of Amarmani’s release will continue to hang fire as Madhumita’s sister Nidhi Shukla has written to President Droupadi Murmu and Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel opposing the move, citing an ongoing Supreme Court hearing in the matter, and accusing Amarmani of “misleading” the authorities.
Nidhi has said that Amarmani spent more than half of his jail term at the government-run Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College in Gorakhpur, and that she feared for her life after his release.
Samajwadi Party MP Dimple Yadav has questioned the BJP government’s decision releasing the Tripathis, equating it to the remission of sentence of the Bilkis Bano case accused.
Amarmani Tripathi took a rather unusual route to kick off his political career, contesting his first election in 1981 on a CPI ticket. Soon, he had established himself as a strongman – the more tried and tested way of getting ahead in politics in Eastern UP.
After losing two consecutive Assembly elections from Lakshmipur, Amarmani moved to the Congress, and won his first election in 1989 as a party candidate from the seat. Subsequently, he came to be seen as close to Congress stalwart Brahmin leader Hari Shankar Tiwari, since deceased.
Still, Amarmani didn’t stay long in the Congress, and moved on to the Loktantrik Congress. In 1996, he won from Lakshmipur on the Loktantrik Congress ticket. When the party joined the BJP, Amarmani found himself a minister, under BJP CMs Kalyan Singh, Ram Prakash Gupta and Rajnath Singh.
By the time of the 2002 Assembly elections, Amarmani was in the BSP. After he won from his seat again, he was inducted into the Mayawati government, which was backed by the BJP.
A year later, Madhumita Shukla, a budding Hindi poet, was shot dead by two assailants at her Lucknow residence. Her sister Nidhi blamed Amarmani, saying Madhumita was in a relationship with him, and was pregnant when killed.
After Amarmani’s name figured in the case, Mayawati expelled him from the BSP and referred the case to the CBI. The agency investigated and arrested Amarmani, his wife and other accused.
While in jail, Amarmani contested the 2007 Assembly elections from his seat, now merged into Nautanwa, on an SP ticket and won.
Later, following a petition by Nidhi, the trial was transferred to Uttarakhand by the Supreme Court.
In 2007, the CBI court sentenced Amarmani, Madhumani and two others, including Amarmani’s nephew Rohit Chaturvedi to life term, for hatching a conspiracy to kill Madhumita. Amarmani and Madhumani were initially lodged in Haridwar jail after their conviction. However, in 2008, Madhumani was transferred to Gorakhpur jail, and Amarmani followed in 2012, after cases of bounced cheques were lodged against them in Uttar Pradesh.
In July 2012, the Uttarakhand High Court upheld the life term awarded by the CBI court to all the four. The court also awarded life imprisonment to Prakash Pandey, another associate of Amarmani who had been let off earlier. Amarmani moved a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court, which was rejected.
In 2014, there was a controversy over the long stay of Amarmani, his wife and four more murder convicts at BRD Medical College. Most of them had been shifted to the hospital on grounds of “depression and suicidal tendencies”. Following the row, Amarmani and Madhumani were shifted to Gorakhpur jail.
They are currently back at BRD Medical College.
In 2015, Amarmani’s son Aman Mani was booked for the murder of his wife Sara Singh, who was found dead under mysterious circumstances in Firozabad district. The CBI said its probe had found that Aman Mani made up a story about Sara dying in an accident while he was trying to save a girl riding a bicycle.
The CBI held him guilty of killing Sara by strangulation as part of a “premeditated plan” and staging the accident.
In the chargesheet against him, the CBI said Sara was being subjected to “physical torture and cruelty” by Aman Mani.
Currently, Amani Mani is out on bail and the case is pending in court. Sara’s mother Seema has accused Amarmani of trying to influence the witnesses in the case, and also expressed apprehensions about his release. “Some jail officials made false reports of Amarmani’s good conduct inside the jail and misled the Supreme Court. I request the CM to get the truth about Amarmani and submit it in court,” Seema Singh says.
In 2017, Aman Mani contested the Assembly elections from his father’s Nautanwa seat as an Independent and won.
In last year’s Assembly elections, he again contested from Nautanwa, but this time, lost.
In 2018, the Adityanath government prepared a premature release policy for life-term prisoners, which did not set any age bar for them. In 2021, the government amended it to stipulate that a life-term convict would be eligible for premature release after he or she attains the age of 60 years. In 2022, the state government amended it further and decided to consider the release of an inmate sentenced to life imprisonment for an offence like murder only after completing a jail term of 16 years without remission or 20 years with remission. In this amended policy, the government also decided to consider the premature release of life-term prisoners even below 60 years of age.
The Tripathis were eligible for premature release after having completed 16 years of their sentence.
This year, the UP Prisons Department has ordered the release of 691 convicts so far under the policy. In June, one of the six people serving life term for the 2005 killing of Indian Oil Corporation sales manager S Manjunath, who was trying to expose a corruption racket, was let out.
