The police has announced a reward of `15,000 on the head of absconding Samajwadi Party MLA Vijay Mishra, who has been accused of being involved in the bomb attack on an Uttar Pradesh minister in early 2010.
The reward has been announced by the inspector general of police, Allahabad range, Subesh Kumar Singh, following allegations of Vijay Mishra’s involvement in the bomb explosion outside the house of minister Nand Gopal Gupta “Nandi” here on July 12, a police spokesman said on Sunday.
The announcement of reward comes close on the heels of the arrest of Rajesh Pilot, the prime accused in the bomb attack case, who was caught by a team of UP police in Mumbai and brought here last week.
Pilot has alleged that he had carried out the explosion at the behest of the SP MLA who had also provided him with shelter after the blast.
Significantly, Vijay Mishra is also a close relative of Dilip Mishra, who had been named in the FIR lodged by Nandi’s relatives following the bomb explosion.
The police suspects “political and business rivalry” to be behind the bomb attack which had killed two persons and seriously injured the minister.
While Dilip Mishra is in jail in connection with another criminal case, Vijay Mishra has been absconding ever since his name was involved in a firing incident at an election rally during the Lok Sabha polls in 2009.
Nandi was the minister for institutional finance and stamp and judicial fees in the Mayawati Cabinet.
After getting injured in the attack, he has been recuperating at Lucknow and though his portfolios have been handed over to another senior member of the state Cabinet, Nandi himself continues to enjoy the status of a minister without portfolio.