Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Dec 14: The four persons arrested from parliament on Wednesday after a massive security breach allowing the intruders to unleash smoke canisters inside the House, were sent to seven days police custody by a special court on Thursday.
The four accused Sagar Sharma and D Manoranjan, who were caught inside the Lok Sabha, and Neelam Devi and Amol Shinde — arrested outside Parliament – were produced before the special NIA court of judge Hardeep Kaur seeking 15 days remand for questioning, but the court allowed the police seven days custody. The Delhi police said the accused needed to be questioned in detail to uncover if they had any terror links behind the act of intruding into Parliament.
Prosecution accused the four arrested of terrorism claiming that they wanted to incite fear. They have been charged under the stringent anti-terror law UAPA besides sections of Indian Penal Code. Sagar, Manoranjan, Amol and Neelam were immediately taken into custody, while their accomplice Vishal Sharma, in whose house the accused stayed before reaching Parliament, was detained later from Gurugram. Lalit Jha, believed to be the mastermind and a key conspirator, is on the run. Delhi Police is conducting raids to nab Lalit, a teacher by profession, who was last seen at Neemrana in the Rajasthan-Haryana border.
A case was registered under UAPA sections 16 (punishment for terrorist act) and 18 (punishment for conspiracy, etc.) and IPC sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 452 (trespass), 153 (wantonly giving provocation, with intent to cause riot), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions) and 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) at the Parliament Street police station, police sources said.
All the four accused were interrogated at Diplomatic Security Force’s office located at Chanakyapuri. Initially, Neelam and Amol were taken to Parliament Street Police station and later, they were shifted to the DSF office.
Names of two organisations have also emerged in the investigation of the Special Cell and their roles are being examined, a senior official said, adding all the accused are giving same answers to the investigation team. “It seems that they had already made preparations as to what to answer when the police interrogate them when they are caught,” the official said.
Influenced by revolutionary Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Lalit, a resident of Kolkata, and others were highly motivated to commit an act which could draw the country’s attention. According to an official privy to the probe, all six joined a Bhagat Singh fan page on Facebook after coming in touch with each other on social media.
Lalit, Sagar and Manoranjan had about a year ago met in Mysuru where they made a plan to barge into the Parliament. They later added Neelam and Amol into the plan. Lalit took the lead and instructed Manoranjan to do a recce of all entry points of the Parliament during the Monsoon Session, the official said. “In July, Manoranjan came to Delhi and went inside Parliament on a visitor pass issued on the name of an MP. There, he got to know that the frisking of shoes does not happen,” the official said.
On Wednesday, Lalit came with the four others to Parliament. When they got only two passes of them, Lalit decided to take the mobile phones of all four — Sagar, Manoranjan, Neelam and Amol — with him. The colour canisters, which were sprayed inside and outside the Parliament complex, were brought by Amol from Kalyan, Maharashtra.
Sagar Sharma from Lucknow and D Manoranjan from Mysuru, had smuggled in smoke bombs which they let off inside parliament. The thick yellow smoke had caused panic for a while. The two were soon caught and overpowered by MPs and parliaments Watch and Ward staff. The other two, unable to get visitors’ passes, were shouting slogans outside parliament, carrying the smoke bombs.
In the court on Thursday the police contended that the incident resembled a terror attack and questioned the motive. “Was the purpose of the incident only to express one’s point or to carry out some major incident. It has to be investigated whether any terrorist organisation is involved in this entire incident,” they told the court.
The court was also told that the accused had probably smuggled in the smoke canisters in their shoes. The men had purchased two pairs of shoes from Lucknow and brought them here, the police said. The canisters were purchased from Mumbai. The accused were also found carrying some pamphlets, the police said.
