Three days after a bomb attack on Uttar Pradesh Minister Nand Gopal "Nandi", police today claimed to have arrested two members of a gang allegedly hired by a local Samajwadi Party leader to eliminate him.
Three days after a bomb attack on Uttar Pradesh Minister Nand Gopal "Nandi", police today claimed to have arrested two members of a gang allegedly hired by a local Samajwadi Party leader to eliminate him.
"Acting on a tip-off, a team of district police nabbed Rajesh Yadav and Kripanand Pandey from Naini police station area of the district late last night", deputy inspector general of police, Allahabad, Braj Bhushan told reporters here.
He said during interrogation, the duo admitted that they were involved in the blast engineered by one Rajesh Mishra alias "Rajesh Pilot", who carries a reward of Rs 15,000 and is considered an expert in planting remote-controlled explosives.
The DIG claimed that Pilot was "hired" by Manoj Mishra, at the behest of his brother-in-law Dilip Mishra, a Samajwadi Party leader who is also the president of Chaka Block in Allahabad district and currently lodged in an Agra jail in connection with the murder of his own security guard.
Dilip Mishra, who is also a close relative of SP MLA from Bhadohi and history-sheeter Vijay Mishra, has been known to be involved in a property dispute with the minister for long.
The needle of suspicion had pointed to Mishra on the day of the incident itself and five persons were rounded up from his house for interrogation within hours of the blast, which killed one person and seriously injured the minister and few others including a local journalist and a gunner.
The DIG added that Pilot, who is yet to be nabbed, had carried out a thorough recce of the area around Nandi's Allahabad residence after which a detailed plan was chalked out to "execute" the attack on Monday, July 12.
The DIG also claimed that the arrested duo have confessed to their active involvement in planting of explosive inside a two-wheeler parked outside Nandi's residence and were even
watching from a safe distance when the blast took place.
He also said that among the arrested duo, Rajesh Yadav had a "criminal record and had gone to jail a number of times in cases relating to murder, loot and Gangsters' Act".
"We are now looking out for Pilot and his nearly half-a-dozen other associates, who were also involved in the conspiracy", he added.
The arrested duo had also been named in the FIR filed in the case by a cousin brother of the minister who had received serious injuries in the explosion on Monday.
They were nabbed following a tip-off that they were trying to flee the city by taking a train from the Naini railway station, the DIG said.
SP MLA Vijay Mishra who is the relative of the main conspirator Dilip Mishra was also in the know of the plot, the arrested duo revealed during their interrogation, ADG law and order Brij Lal told newspersons in Lucknow.
"Rajesh Pilot was given the responsibility to execute the plan and the arrested duo were asked to go to the site along with the unknown accomplice to get it done on July 12 itself and the duo showed Pilot the minister's house and the temple he used to go to," he said.
Pilot asked the duo to remain at the site and inform him when the minister comes out to go to temple on the day they had to carry out their plan and later leave which was followed by them, the ADG said.
The duo had reached the site well before the blast, as per the plan, and after signalling that the minister was on his way to temple departed and heard the blast when they were moving towards their vehicle, the ADG said.
Teams have been constitued to arrest all those whose names have surfaced in the crime including Pilot who is absconding, the ADG said adding that forensic analysis of the evidences gathered from the site were still on and the details of the material used to carry out the blast would be known only after getting a final report.
The chasis number of the scooty on which the explosive was planted has been partially retrieved in the analysis, he said.
To a question, the ADG said Dilip Mishra lodged in Agra jail in connection with a triple murder case was apparently sore with the minister for allegedly taking active interest in getting him arrested.
It was also being investigated as to who all had met him in Agra jail or when he had gone for a court hearing, he said.
The ADG said that since the MLA's name has come up in connection with the conspiracy, it would also be investigated.
About Rajesh Pilot, ADG said that his name had earlier figured in the daring murder of a Lekhpal and advocate. Efforts were also on to identity his unknown accomplice, he added.
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