Lucknow, Aug 23 - Bhagwati Singh may have been sentenced to life for murdering badminton champion Syed Modi 21 years ago, but the million dollar question remains unanswered - why was the ace sportsman killed and who got Bhagwati to pump four bullets into his chest on the night of July 28, 1988?

The sensational murder continued to hit the headlines for months because it had all the ingredients of a Bollywood masala movie - love, passion, money and crime surrounding the death of a sporting hero.

The role of Modi's wife Amita Kulkarni, then herself a name in Indian badminton, her alleged affair with then Uttar Pradesh sports minister Sanjay Singh and his close nexus with Rae Bareli outlaw-turned-politician Akhilesh Singh, as also some revealing infamous letters written by Amita's mother to her, added more spice to the story each day.

Their connections with Subrata Roy, head of then up and coming Sahara Chit Funds, also aroused a lot of media interest.

CBI charge-sheets against Sanjay Singh, Amita and Akhilesh for 'masterminding' and 'conspiring' the murder were knocked off in the prolonged court battle that was fought right up to the apex court by renowned lawyer Ram Jethmalani and his daughter Rani.

The only ordeal that Amita and Sanjay had to go through was a brief stint behind bars but eventually they got a clean chit from the High Court as well as the Supreme Court. Both were now happily married and into politics- Sanjay was Congress MP from Sultanpur and Amita the party legislator from Amethi.

Sanjay and Amita's reprieve came in handy for Akhilesh to get relief on the plea that his co-accused were acquitted, leaving the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) high and dry.