Deepak Chaturvedi: There is no partisan agenda with this docu

In 2003 poetessorator Madhumita Shuklarsquos murder case caught the countryrsquos attention Director Deepak Chaturvedi has revisited the case with Love Kills mdash Madhumita Shukla Hatyakand While Shuklarsquos lover Amarmani Tripathi former MLA and cabinet minister of the UP government and wife Madhumani Tripathi are serving life sentence the Discovery docuseries brings uncomfortable truths about the case to light In a candid chat with midday the director shares the concept and revelations through the documentaryEdited excerpts from the interviewWhat about the Madhumita Shukla murder convinced you to make the documentaryFrom the getgo I sensed that what has come to light is a lot less than what lies beneath the surface The story is about flawed individuals Itrsquos a human story that has no heroes and villains That convinced us to take it onWhat was your agenda behind itI had read a comment by a journalist who said that there is a partisan agenda I can tell you that there was no agenda with this documentary We went in with a clean slate We did our research in three different stages mdash first tabletop then court documents and then we started meeting people on the field We spoke to so many people across the spectrum and gave them ample representation I am a factual storytellerDeepak ChaturvediAs per your research did you find the couple guilty or innocentWe didnrsquot go in with any presumptions because investigation and court are a parallel universe and the reality may not always reflect it So the kind of things Amarmani Tripathi and his wife Madhumani were up to I think they belong where they are We all know that they are guilty as charged but there are several questions that need to be answered The most elementary revelation is that the timeline doesnrsquot add up As per the police and court records the murder took place between 3 and 330 pm in the afternoon But as per all the interviews we have done over three months we found out that the murder took place between 11 am and 12 noon which is a fourhour difference that no one bothered to explain The cops were given first information around 3304 pm and the first respondent landed up at the crime scene by 645 pm That does not alignA person of interest who supposedly hired contract killer Rohit Chaturvedi is related to Tripathirsquos family The CBI and investigators got a confession out of him which was most likely under duress and that established a connection between the Tripathis and the actual shooters The confession was rejected by the courts We have tried to put those without any partisan agendaAlso Read From Money Mafia to My Daughter Joined A Cult 5 mustwatch truecrime docuseriesWas there any political pressure to change the story or to not show any perspectiveWe were all apprehensive that there might be some pushback or political pressure but there was none whatsoeverWhere exactly did you think the investigation failed in this caseI am not saying it has failed Whatever research mdash court documents chargesheet and evidence mdash is available have been filed No one can question the court but there are a lot of layers that have not been addressed The timeline doesnrsquot add up some call records were rejected by the court as was the recovery of the murder weapon The investigation team prevented certain call details from coming to light In the last episode we point out these gaps