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Former Uttar Pradesh minister Amarmani Tripathi and his wife Madhumani, 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.
"Both of them are bedridden. I was the person who took the custody of my parents from the jailor after they were freed," Amanmani Tripathi, son of Amarmani Tripathi, told PTI, adding, "As they got the news of being freed, they cried.".
The couple is currently admitted to the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur.
On when he plans to take them home, Amanmani Tripathi said, "No plans as we have to ask the doctor what treatment has to be given, and if we are supposed to take them to any higher centre."
Amanmani Tripathi was an independent MLA from the Nautanwa assembly constituency in Maharajganj district from 2017 to 2022.
Around 7.15 pm, Gorakhpur district jailer A K Kushwaha reached the BRD Medical College and met Amarmani and Madhumani Tripathi.
Kushwaha said Amarmani was released on furnishing two bail bonds each of Rs 25 lakh. His wife too was released after furnishing two bail bonds of Rs 25 lakh each.
"Both of them have been released from jail custody, and they are free to move out anywhere," Kushwaha told PTI when asked whether the husband-wife duo will continue to remain in the hospital.
The couple will stay in the hospital for the time being, Amanmani Tripathi said.
"My parents are very sick and they are under doctor's surveillance so without the doctor's advice, they won't leave the hospital. With the consent of the doctor, they will be taken home," he said.
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay the couple's release.
The prisons department had also cited the couple's old age and good behaviour. Amarmani is 66 and Madhumani 61, Kushwaha said, adding that though the duo has been released, they will continue to remain at the BRD Medical College.
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.
"My father was a minister from 1996 to 2002 under chief ministers Kalyan Singh, Ram Prakash Gupta and Rajnath Singh (all of the BJP). After this, he was a minister under Mayawati, when she was the chief minister of UP," Amanmani told PTI.
He added that his father was only an MLA when he was with the Samajwadi Party.
Supporters of Amarmani Tripathi burst crackers outside his office in Maharajganj district.
Amarmani Tripathi's daughter Tanu said, "It is a surreal feeling and I don't know how to express in words that my parents are coming out. Both of them are old and suffering from ailments... I want to say that I am very grateful that my parents will be able to live with us."
During the day, the Supreme Court also issued notices to the Uttar Pradesh government, Tripathi and his wife, seeking their replies within eight weeks on a plea filed by the poet's sister Nidhi Shukla.
Nidhi Shukla, who had been at the forefront of this legal fight, earlier said she feared for her life and that of her family members in case the two are released.
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.
"I have been telling everyone that this is going to happen. I have procured the documents through an RTI which clearly states that 62 per cent of the jail term that the two are said to have served had been spent out of jail.
"I submitted documents to all responsible persons telling them that between 2012 and 2023 he was not in jail. The government documents, which I have got through the state information commission, after a long fight, bear this out," Nidhi Shukla told PTI earlier in the day.
She also alleged that the Tripathis misled authorities to get a premature release.