Rahul's missing aide found hurt in Lucknow

Youth Congress activist Nishant Patel, an aide of Rahul Gandhi, was found injured in Lucknow on Tuesday, a day after he went missing under mysterious circumstances from a hotel in the adjoining Hardoi district.

The 35-year-old Patel, son of senior Congress leader and former Gujarat Minister Hasmukh Patel, has been hospitalised after he was found near the Buddheshwar crossing in the state capital.

"Nishant Patel, an activist of Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi's youth team who had been made the party's Lok Sabha returning officer to conduct organisational polls in Mishrikh constituency, has been found in an injured condition near Budheshwar crossing in Talkatora police station area," senior Congress leader and spokesman Akhilesh Pratap Singh said.

"We are rushing to meet him and find out the details of what had happened to him," Singh said.

The police said Nishant was staying in room number 104 in Utsav hotel in Hardoi, 100 km from Lucknow, since July 2 and was last seen on Monday morning and could not be traced since then.

"Both his mobile phones and other belongings are kept in the hotel room," they said.

Four members of the hotel staff, including the manager, were being quizzed by police.

Sources said Patel appeared to be in a daze and had injuries on his abdomen and arms.