Gorakhpur (UP), Feb 9 (IANS): Two police teams are busy evaluating properties belonging to former minister Amar Mani Tripathi, as per orders of a Basti court in a 23-year-old abduction case against former minister.

The teams are working in Lucknow and Maharajganj for evaluation of properties.

Superintendent of police (SP), Basti, Gopal Krishna confirmed that a request letter had been sent by the Basti district magistrate to SP Lucknow Commissionerate and the district magistrate of Maharajganj for cooperation in evaluation and confiscation of the former minister’s properties in the two districts.

The Rahul Gupta case was registered in 2001 against seven people, including Hanuman Shukla Kaka, Ajay Mishra, Anand Singh, Ram Vilas, Jay Pratap Shivam, Naini Sharma and Amar Mani Tripathi for kidnapping a school boy in Basti who was later recovered from the residence in Lucknow belonging to the former minister.

Two-and-a-half-months ago, the MP/MLA court of Basti had issued a non-bailable warrant against Tripathi for his continuing absence from appearing before the court.

District and session judge, Basti, Pramod Kumar Giri had directed the district magistrate of Basti to submit his report to the court regarding all the properties belonging to Tripathi in last hearing on January 30.

The district authorities have informed the Basti MP/MLA court regarding Tripathi’s two properties—his paternal house at Nautanva town of Maharajganj and another 450 square metre flat at Vikrant Khand in Lucknow.

The Basti district authorities have already got a missing notice published regarding Tripathi in various newspapers but the ex-minister is still undergoing treatment for frequent fits and disability in speaking and movement at the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur.

Tripathi along with his wife, Madhumani Tripathi, were prematurely released in life sentence in the poetess Madhumita Shukla murder case of 2003, on August 25, 2023.

But they stayed on at the private ward of BRD Medical College to receive treatment and avoided appearing before the court on health grounds.