Police say SP leader attacked Uttar Pradesh minister

UP police claimed a breakthrough on Thursday in the recent bomb attack on state institutional finance minister Nand Gopal Gupta.

Additional DG Brij Lal told reporters Rajesh Yadav and Kripa Shankar Pande had been arrested for executing the attack. However, the main accused was Samajwadi Party (SP) leader and former block head of Allahabad Dilip Mishra, he said. He hatched the conspiracy from jail with aide Mahendra Mishra, Lal said.

The officer said Dilip was related to SP legislator Vijay Mishra, who was also part of the conspiracy. Rajesh Pilot, who set off the bomb with a remote, was absconding, Lal said.

Sources said police were looking for at least half-a-dozen other people who were allegedly part of the plot. Disputes over land ownership and government contracts were the trigger for the lethal attack.

Surgery for minister 
Meanwhile, minister Gupta, continues to be on life support four days after the attack, will undergo a plastic surgery for his badly burnt hands. The surgery would be performed at Sanjay Gandhi Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences in Allahabad on Monday. “Medical tests of the patient show normal recovery. But he is still on life support because of the severe pain in his deep wounds,” a doctor attending to the minister said.