SP candidate Aman Mani Tripathi arrested by CBI for role in wife’s murder

Aman Mani is the son of four-time legislator Amar Mani Tripathi and Madhu Mani, both of whom are serving life term for murdering a poetess, Madhumita Shukla, in 2003.

Aman Mani Tripathi, a Samajwadi Party candidate for next year’s assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh was arrested on Friday for his alleged involvement in the murder of his wife, officials said.

Aman Mani Tripathi, a Samajwadi Party candidate for next year’s assembly polls, was arrested on Friday. (Photo by special arrangement)

Aman Mani is the son of four-time legislator Amar Mani Tripathi and Madhu Mani, both of whom are serving life term for murdering a poetess, Madhumita Shukla, in 2003.

Sources said Aman Mani was arrested in Delhi by a team of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which took over the case last year.

Aman Mani had claimed that his wife Sara, 27, died in a road accident when they were on their way to Delhi for a holiday in July, 2015.

Read | Shivpal names murder accused Aman Mani as SP candidate, Akhilesh fumes

Sara’s mother, Seema Singh, filed an FIR against Aman Mani and his family members for allagedly murdering her daughter. She later sought a CBI probe into the case.

Aman Mani’s arrest will come as a vindication of chief minister Akhilesh Yadav’s opposition to his candidature.

Despite the chief minister’s opposition, his uncle Shivpal had picked Aman Mani from Nautanwa in Maharajganj, an earlier stronghold of Amar Mani.

Read | UP govt to recommend CBI probe in Amarmani’s daughter-in-law death

Aman Mani is also charged with kidnapping in a separate case.

Shivpal made the announcement shortly after taking over as state SP president, intensifying a bruising power struggle within the state’s ruling family.

Seema Singh said: “Aman Mani’s place is in jail, not in politics”.

“But justice must be done...UP police, under some leaders of the ruling party, had worked in favour of Aman Mani,” Seema Singh, who lives in Lucknow’s Gomti Nagar, alleged.

She had earlier opposed the SP ticket to Aman Mani.

“If Mulayam Singh Yadav has courage, then he should give a reply to the educated and wise public of Uttar Pradesh. Why, against the public sentiments, he (Aman Mani) was given the ticket,” Seema Singh had said.