Dehradun, Mar 5 (UNI) A local court today remanded former UP Minister and the main accused in poetess Madhumita Shukla's murder, Amarmani Tripathi to Judicial custoday.

In consonance with the Supreme Court ruling, the Madhumita Shukla murder case in which Mr Tripathi, his wife Madhumani and two others are facing trial was transferred from Lucknow to Dehradun on the plea of the murdered poetess' sister Nidhi, who had sought transfer of the case outside Uttar Pradesh on the ground that a free and fair trial was not possible there as prime accused Tripathi, an MLA supporting the ruling Samajwadi Party, enjoyed political clout.

The apex Court had directed the Dehradun sessions court to conduct the trial on a day-to-day basis and conclude it in six months.

Madhumita (24), allegedly having illicit relations with Tripathi, was gunned down from close range in her two room apartment in Lucknow's Paper Mill Colony on May 9, 2003 when she started exerting pressure on him to marry her after she became pregnant. Later, CBI had arrested Tripathi after it recieved confirmation from Hyderabad Central Forensic Laboratory that his DNA had matched with that of the poetess' dead foetus. Tripathi will be again produced in the court tomorrow.

UNI