Jailed SP MLA claims UP ministers plotting to murder him

Amid tight security, the SP MLA from Gyanpur, who was booked under stringent Gangsters Act, was last night shifted to Meerut district jail from Allahabd's Naini prison where he had been lodged following his arrest in Delhi on February 8. He is accused of engineering the bomb blast outside state cabinet minister Nand Gopal Nandi's residence in Allahabad on July 12, which killed two persons besides injuring the minister grievously.

Mishra told reporters outside the jail that he never had anything against Nandi and claimed that attempts on his life have been made twice in the past.

"I am being falsely implicated in the case at the behest of the Mayawati government," the MLA alleged. He accused two ministers in Mayawati cabinet of plotting to kill him with the help of the police.

Mishra alleged that the UP police chief harboured an old enmity with him.

Santosh Kumar, senior Superintendent, Meerut jail, said the MLA has been lodged in a high-security barrack.