Slain poetess Madhumita Shukla's mother Shanti Devi on Wednesday created a sensation when she alleged that the sample sent for DNA test was 'tampered'.
"Shanti Devi made this allegation in a statement before a Criminal Investigation Department team that went to Madhumita's hometown, Lakhimpur Kheri, today," highly placed sources told rediff.com.
She was stated to have echoed her other daughter Nidhi's claim about Madhumita not being pregnant at all.
'Barely a month before her murder, she had participated in a kavi sammelan, wearing a shalvar-kurta. Had she been pregnant, would it not have shown in the video recording?' she was stated to have told the CID team. 'I am sure the foetus sample sent for DNA examination to Hyderabad is a plant.'
A senior CID official, however, strongly refuted the charge. "All such wild allegations will fall flat once Shanti Devi's DNA sample is matched with that of Madhumita's foetus."
Devi, without naming anyone, said, "I have reason to believe that the present probe is directed towards proving preconceived notions about Madhumita and not against those who are responsible for my daughter's brutal killing."
Terming the current inquiry as a 'farce', she felt the case be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Madhumita's sister, Nidhi, had initially alleged Uttar Pradesh minister Amarmani Tripathi's wife had masterminded the murder to avenge the poetess' growing intimacy with her husband. She, however, backtracked on her charge later.