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Local SP leader accused in UP minister attack
Three days after an attempt on the life of Uttar Pradesh Minister and Bahujan Samaj Party leader Nand Kumar Gupta, police have arrested two aides of a Samajwadi Party leader and accused seven persons, including an SP legislator, on Thursday. HT reports.
Three days after an attempt on the life of Uttar Pradesh Minister and Bahujan Samaj Party leader Nand Kumar Gupta, police have arrested two aides of a Samajwadi Party leader and accused seven persons, including an SP legislator, on Thursday.
The Mayawati cabinet minister, Gupta (36), was seriously injured in front of his house in a blast triggered by a remote-control device.
The local SP leader, Dilip Mishra, is already in jail and is the relative of Vijay Mishra, a legislator from Allahabad, who has also been named among the accused.
The list also named a local criminal, Rajesh Pilot, who allegedly executed the explosion outside the minister's Bahadurganj residence on Monday.
The police, however, could not explain whether small-time criminals could have carried out such a sophisticated attack.
Brij Lal, Additional Director General of police (ADG), claimed that Kripanand Pandey and Rajesh Yadav, aides of Dilip Mishra, confessed that Dilip had hatched the conspiracy to murder Gupta.
Dilip allegedly told his men that since Gupta had ruined him, both personally and professionally, he was left with no other alternative but to "kill Nandi".
The police claimed that Pilot and his men surveyed the Bahadurganj area,and it was decided that the attack would be carried out on Monday.
Accordingly, Rajesh Yadav and Kripa Shankar Pandey waited outside the minister's house on Monday and informed Pilot when Gupta came out of his residence to visit a nearby temple.
Pilot, who had already parked a two-wheeler attached with explosives in front of Gupta's house, allegedly triggered the explosion through a remote-controlled device.
