SP MLA named in bomb attack on BSP minister sent to JC

Allahabad, Feb 10 (PTI) Controversial Samajwadi Party MLAVijay Mishra, arrested in connection with last year''s bombattack on a cabinet minister in BSP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, wastoday remanded to judicial custody for 60 days by a specialcourt here.

Special Judge (Gangster Act) Rajiv Lochan Mehrotra passedthe order after which Mishra, who was arrested from Delhi onTuesday and brought here on transit remand, was taken to thehigh-security Naini central jail on the outskirts of the city.

The stringent Gangsters Act was invoked against Mishra inOctober last year following an alleged confession by oneRajesh Pilot who is believed to have engineered the bomb blastoutside state cabinet minister Nand Gopal Nandi''s residencehere on July 12 which killed two persons besides injuring theminister grievously.

Pilot had reportedly the police that he was hired byMishra, who represents Gyanpur seat in neighbouring districtof Sant Ravidas Nagar, for eliminating Nandi with whom the SPMLA had been involved in a long-standing business andpolitical rivalry.

The alleged disclosure had led to intensifying of thesearch for Mishra who has been named in more than a dozencriminal cases across Uttar Pradesh and had been on the runever since a case was registered against him in connectionwith a firing incident at a rally during the 2009 Lok Sabhaelections.

The state government raised the reward on his head from Rs15,000 to Rs 2.5 lakh even as the Special Task Force of UttarPradesh police conducted raids in various parts of the countryto nab the MLA who was arrested in Delhi on February 8. PTINAC