Lucknow: CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) today (Dec 19, 2003) filed charge-sheet in the high- profile Madhumita Shukla murder case, naming six persons including former Uttar Pradesh Minister Amar Mani Tripathi, his wife Madhumani Tripathi and his nephew Rohit Chaturvedi.

The charge-sheet was filed before the Judicial Magistrate (I) Kumari Rita Gupta by CBI officials from where it would be sent to the concerned court.

The charge-sheet was filed within six months of the registration of the case by the agency.

Besides Tripathi, the CBI has named Prakash Chander Pandey (alleged killer), Santosh Rai (accomplice), Rohit Chaturvedi (cousin of Tripathi and an alleged conspirator) and Yag Narian Dixit (a UP police inspector who allegedly suppressed the facts), CBI said.

Tripathi's wife Madhumani has been named in Column II of the charge-sheet as an absconder, they said.

Tripathi was arrested on September 21 after the DNA test of the foetus of the 24-year-old slain poetess matched with the blood sample of Tripathi.

He could have moved the court tomorrow (Dec 20, 2003) for bail in case the CBI had failed to file the charge-sheet within the stipulated time of 90 days after the arrest of an accused.

The charge-sheet contained a statement under Section 164 of Criminal Procedure Code of Rohit Chaturvedi in which he told the magistrate that Madhumani had asked him to get rid of the child of Madhumita.

PTI