JD(U) MLA Sunil Pandey held for helping Bihar blast accused flee

More than two weeks after the arrest of Bihar blast accused <g data-gr-id="32">Lambu</g> Sharma (arrested by Delhi Police Special Cell), the ruling JD(U) MLA Sunil Pandey has been arrested by Bihar Police  on Saturday morning for helping Sharma in escaping from police custody using human bomb outside Bihar court in January. 

Pandey, MLA from Tarari in Bhojpur district, was arrested from the office of the Superintendent of Police, whom he had gone to meet. Confirming the MLA’s arrest, SP Navin Chand Jha said the legislator has been handed over to Town police station for further action.

Millennium Post  was the first to report that JD(U) MLA in Bihar, Sunil Pandey and his MLC brother Ulhas Pandey have helped <g data-gr-id="34">Lambu</g> in escaping from police custody by staging a bomb blast using a human bomber while he was produced at Ara district court in Bihar on January 23. The duo politicians were in touch with Brijesh Singh, a well-known gangster who has a rivalry with Mukhtar Ansari, currently lodged in jail. 

It is important to mention that Brijesh is close to the JD(U) MLA, Sunil Pandey and his MLC brother Ulhas Pandey figured prominently in the killing of Vinod Singh, the mukhiya of <g data-gr-id="33">Ichri</g> panchayat in Bhojpur district.  Also, when <g data-gr-id="36">Lambu</g> escaped he was hiding at a residence of JD(U) MP in Delhi. “We are likely to quiz both Ulhas and the Delhi MP after we finish the interrogation with Sunil Pandey,” a senior official in Bihar police said.

A day after the arrest of Sharma, he was handed over to Bihar Police. Since then he was in police custody and was being intensively quizzed. During <g data-gr-id="50">interrogation</g> he told police that to eliminate Ansari, another gangster--Chand and a member of Singh’s gang, who was lodged with <g data-gr-id="43">Lambu</g> taught him to make IEDs. According to sources, after <g data-gr-id="44">Lambu</g> escaped from police custody he became inactive and was fine tuning himself in preparing IEDs. To hide himself from police, he was constantly changing his <g data-gr-id="45">where abouts</g>. For few <g data-gr-id="48">days</g> he lived in Delhi, Punjab, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, <g data-gr-id="46">Orrisa</g>, Maharashtra. “After the bomb blast at Bihar court, he did not <g data-gr-id="47">participated</g> in any criminal activity. He was only focusing on the killing of Ansari with the help of a high-intensity bomb blast,” the source added.

“To fine-tune himself in making IEDs that could cause a <g data-gr-id="38">high intensity</g> blast, <g data-gr-id="30">Lambu</g> was facilitated with <g data-gr-id="37">monthly</g> salary. He had got only one chance to kill Ansari. Earlier he tried to kill him inside the jail premises where Ansari is lodged but failed due to high security. <g data-gr-id="31">Lambu</g> then decided to kill him while Ansari was supposed to travel from the jail to the court or vice versa,” the source added.