Lucknow, June 09: Investigators in the high-profile Madhumita Shukla murder case have so far found no clinching evidence against former BSP minister Amar Mani Tripathi, said to be close to the poetess. "There is no doubt that the former minister knew Madhumita and was intimately involved with her. They went around and had even gone out of the state together," a senior official of CB-CID, probing the case, said here today on condition of anonymity.

The CB-CID had so far failed to ascertain the motive for murder of the poetess, he said.

Tripathi, who had to resign after his name figured in connection with the murder, had not been quizzed, the official said. "We do not have clinching evidence against him," he added.
Sources claim the CB-CID has prepared a tentative report that would be presented to Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati on her return from abroad on June 12 next.

The CB-CID was handed the case on May 19 and was asked to complete the probe within a month and submit the report.

Tripathi's re-induction into the cabinet hinges on a favourable CB-CID report. Mayawati had said that if Tripathi was given a clean chit by the agency, he would be taken back otherwise he would be expelled from the BSP.
Madhumita was shot dead at her posh paper mill colony residence on May 9 by two armed assailants.
Bureau Report