Charges were framed against former Uttar Pradesh minister Amar Mani Tripathi, his wife Madhumani and three others in the Madhumita murder case, two years after the pregnant-poetess was killed, in Lucknow.
District and Sessions Judge Shiv Charan Sharma read out the charges against the accused in their presence to which they pleaded not guilty.
The court accordingly posted the next hearing of the case to November five.
The accused were charged under various IPC sections pertaining to murder, criminal conspiracy, destroying evidence, abetment to offence and wrongful confinement.
Tripathi and his wife Madhumani were the main accused in the case along with Rohit Chaturvedi, Prakash Chandra Pandey and Santosh Rai. All the accused persons are currently in jail.
Madhumita Shukla was murdered by unidentified persons at her posh paper mill colony residence in Lucknow on May nine, 2003.