Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath.
Credit: PTI File Photo
A day after former Uttar Pradesh minister Amarmani Tripathi and his wife Madhumani were prematurely released from jail, their son and former Independent MLA Aman Mani Tripathi on Saturday called Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath his 'guardian and guide' with whom he has 'familial relationship'.
Addressing a press conference, he said the people of his constituency Nautanwa in Maharajganj district were celebrating his parents release like the festivals of Holi and Diwali.
"Just as Lord Shri Ram's return to Ayodhya after 14 years of exile was celebrated as the festival of lights, a similar atmosphere prevails in Nautanwa," he said.
Amarmani Tripathi, 66, and Madhumani, 61, serving life sentences in the poet Madhumita Shukla murder case, were released on Friday evening, ahead of the completion of their terms.
The Uttar Pradesh prisons department on Thursday issued an order for their premature release, citing the state's 2018 policy on remission, since they have completed 16 years of their sentences.
The couple is currently admitted to the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur.
At the press conference, Aman Mani Tripathi said, "The chief minister is our guardian and guide. I regularly meet him and seek his blessings. I am active in politics and regularly seek his advice, even in family matters. Our relationship with the chief minister is not political but familial."
Asserting that he and his parents did not know about the release order in advance, he said, "At first, I couldn't believe the order. I read it several times and even consulted our lawyers. My father didn't have any information and while signing the release papers, he asked me about it and I told him it's the release order."
On poet Madhumita Shukla's sister Nidhi Shukla moving the Supreme Court against the release order, he said, "Everyone is free to approach the court. We have full faith in the Indian Constitution."
Aman Mani Tripathi said his mother has psychiatric problems and father suffers from neurological and spinal issues which affect his ability to walk to a certain extent.
"Due to judicial custody, doctors were not able to refer him to higher medical centres, but if they suggest, we'll certainly take them there. Currently, doctors are assessing their health condition and the effect of a medicine they recently added on my father," he said.
"My parents are not in a condition to go somewhere else; they are still admitted to hospital. They will certainly come home directly if released from the hospital," he added.
Amarmani Tripathi, who was elected from the Nautanwa constituency, was a minister in the state's BJP government in 2001 and also in the BSP government formed in 2002. He has also been with the Samajwadi Party.
Poet Madhumita, who was pregnant, was shot dead on May 9, 2003, in the Paper Mill Colony, Lucknow. Amarmani Tripathi was arrested in September 2003 in connection with the murder of the poet with whom he was allegedly in a relationship.
A Dehradun court had sentenced Amarmani Tripathi and his wife Madhumani Tripathi to life imprisonment for Madhumita's murder in October 2007. Later, the High Court of Uttarakhand at Nainital and the Supreme Court upheld the sentences. The case was probed by the CBI.