The mystery behind the murder of poetess Madhumita Shukla, who was killed at her residence in Lucknow on May 9, has deepened with the Central Bureau of Investigation finding no fingerprints from the scene of crime.

Highly placed agency sources told PTI that the Uttar Pradesh Police had no convincing explanation to offer.

The scene of crime and the sequence of events were also not being recast by the state police, the sources said.

They added the state police could not even support their claims with any circumstantial evidence.

About the meeting of the CBI team with the family of the poetess, the sources said they cooperated with the investigating agency and also threw some light on the deceased's personal life.

The 24-year-old poetess was shot dead by two assailants in her Paper Mill colony residence. The alleged relationship between Madhumita and the former Bahujan Samaj Party minister Amar Mani Tripathi created ripples in political circles forcing Chief Minister Mayawati to sack him from the ministry.

The CBI sources said questioning of certain people was slated to be completed soon and did not rule out the possibility of examining the former BSP minister.

Tripathi has denied any involvement in the murder saying that he was in no way involved in the case and the allegations leveled against him were baseless and the CBI probe would bring out the truth.