NEW DELHI: The special cell of Delhi Police on Tuesday night arrested dreaded inter-state criminal Sachidanand Sharma alias Lambu Sharma, who had escaped from police custody after orchestrating a blast at Arrah court premises in January this year. Sharma’s ‘lover’, Nagina, who had triggered the blast unknowingly, died while he escaped in the ensuing melee.

Sharma revealed to the police that his escape from the Arrah court was part of a plot to kill UP’s top mafia don turned politician Mukhtar Ansari , highly placed sources told TOI. “While in Arrah jail, Sharma was hired by another UP gangster who is Ansari’s rival. It was with his help and finances that Sharma carried out the daring escape from Arrah court,” the source said.

The source said two JD(U) politicians were under the scanner for facilitating Sharma’s escape and sheltering him subsequently. The police are also probing whether Sharma stayed at a JD(U) leader’s house in Delhi.

This was Sharma’s third escape from custody. He made a similar escape from Arrah court in July 2009 after triggering a blast in which an advocate was killed.

Giving details, DCP Rajeev Ranjan said: “On June 23, information was received that Lambu Sharma would be arriving at the Maharana Pratap ISBT late evening to meet a contact. A team led by ACP Manishi Chandra arrested Sharma around midnight.”

Considered to be the sharpest amongst the new breed of criminals, Sharma confessed that his modus operandi was to trap young innocent women on the pretext of having an affair with them. After several meetings with Nagina, he promised to marry her after his release from jail and cooked up a story saying he needed the pictures of the court premises and a purported rival.

He asked her to carry a tiffin box to the court premises, saying the box contained a hidden camera for taking the pictures. The box actually contained a powerful IED, and pressing the so called switch triggered the blast killing Nagina.

Till Nagina’s last moment, Sharma was talking to her on phone using a Bluetooth. At the opportune moment when he was being taken from the jail van to the court, he asked her to “click” the picture. Nagina’s phone was recovered from the blast site and the number she was talking to was later found to be Sharma’s.

Nagina was married to a mentally challenged person and had been friends with another powerful Arrah jail inmate, Uma Singh. During one of Nagina’s visits to Uma Singh, Sharma lured her saying he had fallen in love with her. Fascinated by his charm and influence, Nagina kept visiting him in jail even after Uma Singh was released.

Sharma, with the help of his aides armed with the tiffin bomb, made the first attempt to escape on January 11. But he failed as Nageena could not reach the court premises on time.