Three cops caught taking money from MLA's kin

Three constables at Naini Central Jail were suspended on Wednesday after they were caught on camera accepting money from the daughter of a controversial ruling Samajwadi Party MLA, who is an accused in the 2010 bomb attack on the then BSP minister Nand Gopal Gupta alias Nandi. The incident took place when Vijay Mishra, the MLA, was released on bail on Tuesday.

Three constables at Naini Central Jail were suspended on Wednesday after they were caught on camera accepting money from the daughter of a controversial ruling Samajwadi Party MLA, who is an accused in the 2010 bomb attack on the then BSP minister Nand Gopal Gupta alias Nandi. The incident took place when Vijay Mishra, the MLA, was released on bail on Tuesday.

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As the MLA was leaving the jail in a vehicle, the three constables ran after him for 'bakshish' (a tip). Video footage aired by various TV channels showed the three men accepting notes of 500 denomination from Seema Mishra, daughter of the MLA.

The district police chief ordered an investigation into the episode. "The video footage was obtained for investigation and the three men in uniform were identified as Vijay Sonkar, Gulab Chand and Rajkumar. All of them were posted here as prison warders and they have been suspended with immediate effect," senior superintendent of Naini Central Jail Ambrish Gaur told reporters.

Mishra, who has been named in a number of criminal cases, is a third-time MLA from Gyanpur constituency in the neighbouring district of Sant Ravidas Nagar.

He was released after his bail application was accepted by the Allahabad high court on August 17 when it also ordered that the SP legislator "shall not directly or indirectly make any inducement, threat or promise to any person acquainted with the facts of the case so as to dissuade him from disclosing such facts to the court or to any police officer or tamper with evidence".

On Tuesday, when Mishra moved out of the high-security jail on the city's outskirts, he was greeted by a number of supporters who raised slogans hailing his release.

The MLA thereafter entered his SUV which drove him home and his daughter Seema, seated beside him, was seen distributing cash among her father's supporters.

The three warders, who were in uniform, were also shown, in the video footage, accepting money from Seema and greeting the ruling party MLA.

Several other constables also ran after the vehicle, evoking laughter from the legislator's supporters.

Mishra was arrested by Special Task Force of the Uttar Pradesh police from Delhi in February last year after he went absconding upon his name cropping up in the case relating to the bomb attack on Nandi who was a cabinet minister in the Mayawati government.

He was thereafter brought here for trial and had been lodged inside the Naini Central Prison since then. Nandi was grievously injured in the bomb explosion that took place outside his Allahabad residence on July 12, 2010 which also killed two persons, including a journalist Vijay Pratap Singh who died later.

Mishra was booked after one of the suspects allegedly told the police during interrogation that the conspiracy was hatched at the behest of the Gyanpur MLA.

The SP legislator has, however, denied the charge and claimed that he was falsely implicated in the case at the instance of some other members of the Mayawati cabinet with whom he had a long-standing political rivalry.

(with PTI inputs)