Rahul's close aide goes missing from hotel in UP

Mysterious disappearance of senior Congress leader Nishant Patel, son of former Gujarat minister Hasmukh Patel and seen as incharge of Rahul Gandhi's Mission Uttar Pradesh, from his hotel in Hardoi on Monday morning has sent the police into a tizzy.

Nishant was in Hardoi along with another senior Congress leader from Punjab, Sukhwant Singh Baraar. They were reportedly deputed by their party's top brass to oversee the elections of Youth Congress Executive Committee in Hardoi. Nominations for the elections began on Monday morning.

The two leaders had checked into the upmarket Hotel Utsav in the heart of the town on Saturday. While Patel checked-in to room number 101, Baraar was in the adjacent room - 102. After meeting the party workers all through the day to finalise the nomination process, the two leaders retired to their respective rooms late in the evening on Sunday.

According to the additional superintendent of police (ASP) (east), when Patel failed to come out of the room and all attempts to call him on his two cellphones proved futile, the party workers got worried and informed the local police. What added an element of mystery to the whole incident was the fact that Patel's cellphones were found in his room along with his luggage and belongings. But there was no trace of the leader.

The police, quoting the hotel security guard, said that Patel was last seen walking out of the hotel lobby at around 5 am on Monday - apparently for a morning walk. He returned half-an-hour later and again left the hotel. He was last seen speaking to a rickshaw puller outside the hotel gates, according to the guard. "The guard did not see him sitting on the rickshaw, so it could not be established if he took the rickshaw or not," the ASP said.

Reports said that the police called up the residential numbers of Patel that were found in his mobiles' phone books and spoke to some of his family members as well. "We could not get any satisfactory reply from them. One of them did talk of him having the problem of hypertension," said a police officer associated with the probe.

The police said that as Patel's belongings and cellphones were found in his hotel room, it indicates that either he deliberately left everything behind and left on his own accord or he went out for a few minutes and thereafter went missing.

"There is no third reason for him leaving his cellphones and all the other belongings in the room itself," said the officer. Nishant had visited Hardoi earlier on a number of occasions and possibilities of him having lost his way to the hotel are remote, the police said.

Baraar, according to the police, ruled out the possibility of Nishant being under any type of stress or strain till late on Sunday night. A missing case was lodged by the Hardoi police late in the evening on Monday in connection with Patel's disappearance.