The Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh chose to downplay the attack on UP minister Nand Gopal Nandi on Monday.
Seven hours after the incident, ADG Brij Lal said that the police had no clue about the motive behind the crime or the identity of the criminals. He denied media reports t
hat the police had zeroed in on a local SP leader, Dilip Misra, with whom the minister had a business dispute and was conducting raids to arrest Mr Misra.
The ADG also made light of the minister’s condition and said that Nandi was “perfectly alright”. However, he said that the police had taken the incident as a challenge and would work out the case at the earliest.
UP chief minister Mayawati, on the other hand, took a serious view of the “manhandling” of the minister and asked the officers to ensure severe punishment for the guilty.
Meanwhile, sources in Allahabad said that an air ambulance had been called in and preparations were on to shift the minister and other seriously injured persons to either the Sanjay Gandhi Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences in Lucknow or AIIMS in Delhi.
Meanwhile, Congress, BJP and the Samajwadi Party have condemned the incident.
BJP leader Kalraj Misra said that the incident was a pointer to the deteriorating law and order situation in UP. Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh told reporters that if a minister was not safe in his own home then one could imagine the plight of the common man. He said that the incident was an example of how criminals had become fearless.
SP spokesman Rajendra Choudhury said that the incident was a lesson for the BSP which had been providing shelter to anti-social elements.