The Supreme Court has refused to stay the release of former Uttar Pradesh minister Amarmani Tripathi, who was convicted in the sensational 2003 murder of poet Madhumita Shukla and is to be released from jail.

Tripathi and his wife, Madhumani Tripathi, also to be released, have been serving a life term since 2007 but will be freed on the basis of ‘good conduct’ in prison, the UP government said in its order.

A bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Bela M Trivedi issued notices to the state government, Tripathi and his wife while seeking their replies within eight weeks on a plea filed by the poet’s sister, Nidhi Shukla.

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The plea stated the couple had manipulated their basis for release in an incorrect manner by referring to orders issued by the Supreme Court in unrelated cases.

The development comes after the Uttar Pradesh Prisons Administration department on Thursday issued an order regarding the release of the minister and his wife, considering their age, the duration of the sentence served in jail and their good conduct in prison.

If not necessary for another case, the minister and his wife should be released from custody, the order stated. Lodged at a jail in UP’s Gorakhpur for the past 16 years, the couple will be released after a bond is presented.

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They were sentenced to life imprisonment by the Special Judge/Sessions Judge of Dehradun in October 2007, in connection with the murder of poetess Madhumita Shukla, who died on May 9, 2003, in Lucknow.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), while declaring Amarmani and his wife Madhumani guilty in its investigation, had submitted its chargesheet in the court.

They were accused of intimidating the witnesses and the case was transferred to Dehradun.

What was the Madhumita Shukla murder case?

Madhumita Shukla, a fiery poet, was murdered on May 9, 2003. Her body was found at her home in Lucknow’s Nishatganj area. Shukla was 24 years old and allegedly Tripathi’s lover.

Amarmani Tripathi was then a four-time MLA with links to various political parties and a great deal of influence, which was why the Supreme Court transferred the case from Lucknow to Dehradun after Shukla’s family feared Tripathi may interfere with the judicial process.

Shukla was pregnant when she died and the father was said to be Tripathi, something confirmed after forensics examinations by the CBI.