Accused of killing his wife, MLA Amanmani Tripathi was seen sharing stage with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath at the Gorakhpur University campus on Saturday.
Tripathi, an independent MLA from Nautanwa assembly seat in Maharajganj district, welcomed the CM on stage and touched his feet while handing out a bouquet.
The son of strongman Amarmani Tripathi, Amanmani is accused of murdering his wife Sarah and is currently out on bail. He is being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) contested the recently-concluded UP Assembly elections on law and order plank and Yogi had promised that no one would be allowed to “play with the law”. Amarmani was one of the main targets of the BJP when the MLA was in the Samajwadi Party. He was removed from the SP by party president Akhilesh Yadav just before the elections.
When confronted, Tripathi said he is only an accused in the murder case and has not been convicted. Ironically, he said that he stands with Maharaj (Yogi Adityanath) on law and order situation in the state.
"He is our guardian, I have always sought guidance from him. He is our local leader. He knows everything and I came here as a representative of my people her," Amarmani Tripathi said.
Amanmani's presence irked a few local BJP leaders who that he was there on the government’s invitation.
“BJP’s programme was at the hotel where the CM address party workers. We did not invite Amanmani there,” said BJP’s Gorakhpur Mahanagar president Rahul Srivastava adding that the administration did wrong by inviting Amanmani to the CM’s event.
Another BJP leader said that Amanmani was invited in his capacity as a local MLA. The government had invited all MLAs from Gorakhpur division and Nautanwa falls under this, he said, according to a report by the Indian Express.
After winning the polls, Tripathi has been cosying up to the BJP. Soon after the Assembly results, he had visited the Gorakhnath Temple and paid obeisance there.
He also met Adityanath after the latter was appointed the CM, triggering speculations that the murder accused could join the BJP in the near future.
He had also put up a large number of hoardings in Gorakhpur welcoming Adityanath on his visit to the city on Saturday. The hoardings also carried picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Samajwadi Party had expelled Tripathi for contesting as an independent against its official candidate Kunwar Kaushal Kishore alias Munna Singh.
Amanmani was on November 25, 2016, arrested by the CBI in connection with the alleged murder of his wife Sara, 27. The agency filed the chargesheet in a special CBI court in Ghaziabad under sections of 302 (murder), 498-A (husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of Indian Penal Code.
He had earlier claimed that Sara died in the road accident in Uttar Pradesh's Firozabad on July 9, 2015 when they were on their way to New Delhi for a holiday. The politician, however, had escaped unhurt in the accident.
Tripathi's father Amarmani Tripathi, a former UP minister, has been serving life sentence in jail after being convicted for killing poetess Madhumita Shukla. Amarmani's wife is also serving life sentence in the same case.
