Madhumita: Key witness out of bounds for family, media

Mukhya mantriji, hum anushuchit jaati ke garib log hain. Deshraj mera iklauta beta hain. Mere laadle ko mujhe dilwaade (CMji, we are poor pe...

Mukhya mantriji, hum anushuchit jaati ke garib log hain. Deshraj mera iklauta beta hain. Mere laadle ko mujhe dilwaade (CMji, we are poor people. Deshraj is my only son. Please give me back my son),’’ said a fax sent by Kamla Devi to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati. The Chief Minister is yet to respond to the message.

Twelve-year-old Deshraj, slain poetess Madhumita Shukla’s servant who is the key witness to the murder, has been kept out of bounds for his family and the media ever since the incident took place on May 9. It is learnt that he has been shifted between different guesthouses and police stations.

Mobile records show Tripathi was in touch with her

Lucknow: Cellphone records of slain poetess show sacked UP minister Amar Mani Tripathi was constantly in touch with her.

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Sources said mobile phone records of the deceased indicate he had called her at least five times on May 9, the day she was murdered, at her residence. However, all the five calls, three from the minister’s mobile and two from his landline, were received after she was murdered.

On May 7-8, 2003, Shukla and Tripathi spoke 32 times on their mobile phones. Meanwhile, sources said police searched IIT, Kanpur, premises to trace student Anuj Kumar Mishra. A local priest had claimed he had solemnised the Shukla’s marriage with Mishra. Agencies

Police and the Crime Branch, CID have kept mum on the boy’s whereabouts. When asked, SSP Anil Kumar only said that Deshraj was handed over to CB-CID when the case was transferred.

Deshraj, who hails from Kaisarganj in Bahraich district, shot into prominence when he admitted to a TV channel after the murder that sacked BSP minister Amar Mani Tripathi had come to Madhumita’s house and they had gone upstairs to sleep. Tripathi has been removed by the Chief Minister for a month in connection with the murder.

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Meanwhile, the CB-CID office has transformed into a fortress. Officials refuse to take phone calls from mediapersons and callers are greeted with ‘‘Saheb vyast hain (boss is busy)’’. Sources said the CB-CID, at a closed-door meeting held recently, issued directives to its officials to maintain total secrecy in the case.

In another significant development, Additional DGP (CB-CID) R.C Sharma was transferred on Monday night, a day before the agency had to start the probe.