PTI

Dehradun, Oct 24: Four years after poetess Madhumita Shukla was murdered, a special court on Wednesday sentenced to life former UP minister Amarmani Tripathi, his wife Madhumani, cousin Rohit Chaturvedi besides contract killer Santosh Rai in the high-profile case.

However, Prakash Pandey, who was accompanying Santosh Rai, the main killer, was acquitted for lack of evidence.

Holding all the four guilty, District and Sessions Judge V B Rai also gave one year additional imprisonment to the SP MLA for wrongful confinement and threats to one Anuj Mishra, who was forced to claim that he was married to the poetess.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 each on all the four convicts.

The poetess was found murdered at her Lucknow flat on May 9, 2003. She was murdered at the behest of Madhumani, who was opposed to her affair with her husband.

The slain poetess' sister Nidhi and her servant Desraj were the key witnesses in the case.

Though CBI has demanded death penalty for all the accused, the court said the case was not the rarest of the rare and asserted that the four deserved life imprisonment.

The court took only five minutes to pronounce its judgement.

CBI counsels Baljit Singh and Raj Mohan Chand said they were satisfied with the verdict.

They said they would examine the court verdict and decide whether to appeal against the acquittal of Prakash Pandey.

"Though we had demanded the highest penalty for all the accused, we are satisfied with the judgement," Chand said.