Dehradun: The Apex court has issued a notice to the Uttarakhand government regarding a plea for the premature release of a convict in the 2003 murder case of poetess Madhumita Shukla.
A bench led by Justice Abhay S. Oka has sought the state government’s response to Rohit Chaturvedi’s plea, which requests a competent authority to consider his remission application. According to the computerized case status, the matter is scheduled for hearing on November 14.
Trial was transferred from Uttar Pradesh to Uttarakhand
Former Uttar Pradesh minister Amarmani Tripathi, his wife Madhumani Tripathi, nephew Chaturvedi, and shooter Santosh Rai were convicted by a fast-track court in Dehradun on October 24, 2007, for the murder of poetess Madhumita Shukla. The trial was moved from Uttar Pradesh to Uttarakhand by order of the top court. In December last year, the Supreme Court directed that the remission plea be sent to the Uttar Pradesh government since the offense occurred within its territory. The court instructed the State of Uttar Pradesh to examine the matter and make a decision within eight weeks. When the UP government failed to comply with this judgment, the state’s Additional Advocate General (AAG) was ordered to take instructions.
An application had been filed to recall judgment in Bilkis Bano case
In September, AAG Garima Prasad, representing the Uttar Pradesh government, informed the Supreme Court that an application had been filed to recall or modify the December 2023 judgment in light of the second Bilkis Bano case decision. In January, the Supreme Court ruled that the Maharashtra government had jurisdiction to consider the early release application filed by the convicts in the Bilkis Bano case, as they were sentenced by a special court in Mumbai, not Gujarat. The court stated that the earlier decision from May 2022, which asked the Gujarat government to consider the remission application, was made by suppressing material facts and is non-Est in the eyes of the law.
SC refused to pass an interim order to prevent the early release of Amarmani Tripathi
In a related development, the Supreme Court in August last year refused to pass an interim order to prevent the early release of Amarmani Tripathi and his wife Madhumani Tripathi, based on a plea by Nidhi Shukla, the sister of the murdered poetess. The court issued notices to the Uttar Pradesh government, the Tripathis, and others, stating that the couple would be sent back to prison if the complainant’s petition succeeded. The petition challenged the Uttar Pradesh government’s remission order for their early release, despite their life imprisonment sentences in the 2003 murder case.
