Madhumita murder: sibling asks Governor to disqualify Amarmani

Lucknow, Oct 29 (UNI) After conviction of Samajwadi Party MLA Amarmani Tripathi in the sensational Madhumita Shukla murder case, demands for his disqualification from the Uttar Pradesh assembly have started echoing.

Ms Nidhi Shukla, sister of the slain poetess, has submitted a memorandum to Governor T V Rajeswar, Assembly Speaker Sukhdeo Rajbhar and state Parliamentary Affairs Minister Lalji Verma today demanding immediate disqualification of the SP MLA elected from Lachmipur seat in Maharajganj district.

In her one page memoradum, Ms Shukla said after being handed down life imprisonment by the special court in Dehradun on October 24 last, Uttar Pradesh government should immediately disqualify him from the membership of the state assembly.

According to assembly sources, Governor has the power to disqualify any member in consultation with the Election Commission if he or she is convicted by any court.

Sources said any move to disqualify the member is expected to be made after a High Court decision. Amarmani has moved the upper court against the lower court's judgement.

The Dehradun special court judge V B Rai had pronounced life imprisonment on Amarmani and his wife Madhumani Tripathi and two others for the murder of the 24-year-old poetess.

On May 9, 2003, Madhumita Shukla, a budding poetess and allegedly the lover of Amarmani, was gunned down from close range in her two-room apartment in Lucknow's Paper Mill Colony. Phone calls relating to the murder were traced to his wife Madhumani in Gorakhpur, who has also been implicated in the murder. She was apparently unhappy with her husband's liasons with Madhumita.

Amarmani was arrested in September, 2003 from Lucknow after a DNA match confirmed that he was fathering the seven-month foetus Madhumita was carrying when she was killed.

UNI