But it did not end in Lucknow last week. The body of Madhumita Shukla, the poetess was 'comandeered' while her parents were taking it to their native place in Lakhimpur Kheri for cremation and brought back to Lucknow, ostensibly to get a DNA test conducted on the foetus.

Amid allegations of involvement of the wife of Amar Mani Tripathi, U. P. Minister of State, in the shooting, police decided to get a DNA test of the foetus after the post-mortem report confirmed that the umnarried poetess was six months pregnant The DNA sample was sent to Hyderabad for testing to ascertain the paternity of the foetus.

Madhumita was shot dead at her residence by two assailants. The sister of the deceased, Nidhi Shukla, alleged that the poetess was having a relationship with Uttar Pradesh Minister of State Amar Mani Tripathi. She alleged that the murder was committed at the behest of the minister’s wife who did not like their relationship and had even threatened Madhumita.

Tripathi however vehemently denied the allegations but admitted he knew Madhumita, saying she had visited his constituency in connection with a "kavi sammelan". He also denied the charge that his wife was involved in the killing.

This is not the first time that Amar Mani Tripathi has hit the headlines for the wrong reasons. In 2001, he was dropped from the ministry and arrested for his involvement in the kidnapping of a boy. He was arrested by the Special Task Force of the State police. The minister’s driver was also arrested. Tripathi was charged with providing shelter to the kidnappers of a Basti-based trader’s son.

Tripathi was sacked from the Rajnath Singh government after the kidnappers revealed that Tripathi had arranged for their stay after they had kidnapped the boy. The gang had kidnapped a trader from Basti district a few days earliar and were provided shelter in the house that had Tripathi’s name plate. The kidnappers revealed during interrogation that had they made the ransom demand from the same house.

Madhumita was murdered by two men who entered her house in the Paper Mill Colony in the afternoon and shot her at point blank range. Only her servant was present in the house at that time. Her sister, Nidhi had gone to the market.

According to the servant, Deshraj, a person named Satya Prakash had come to meet Madhumita along with another person. He took them in and informed Madhumita. The poetess sent him to the kitchen to prepare tea for the 'guests' when he suddenly heard the sounds of gun fire from the drawing room.