New Delhi, Jul 24 (PTI) Observing disruption of Parliament was the best way to create terror in the country, the Delhi High Court on Thursday asked the police to response to the bail plea of an accused in the December 2023 Parliament security breach case.
A bench of Justices Vivek Chaudhary and Shalinder Kaur was hearing the bail plea of accused Sagar Sharma and Manoranjan D in the case.
Manoranjan’s counsel said the act of opening smoke canisters inside Parliament while sloganeering did not amount to terrorist act as the smoke was not obnoxious and the intention of the accused was to only highlight unemployment and not create terror.
The bench, however, said, “The best way to create terror in India is to disrupt the Parliament. You disrupted the Parliament.” The court asked Delhi Police to file a status report to Sharma’s bail plea and posted the hearing on October 8, when it would also take up Manoranjan’s plea petition in which it issued notice earlier.
The accused challenged a trial court’s order denying them bail in the case.
In a major security breach on the anniversary of the 2001 Parliament terror attack, accused Sagar Sharma and Manoranjan D allegedly jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber from the public gallery during Zero Hour, released yellow gas from canisters and sloganeered before they were overpowered by some MPs.
Around the same time, two other accused — Amol Shinde and Neelam Azad — allegedly sprayed coloured gas from canisters while shouting “tanashahi nahi chalegi (dictatorship won’t work)” outside the Parliament premises.
The high court in July granted bail to co-accused Neelam Azad and Mahesh Kumawat.
While Sharma contended he was entitled to be released on bail on the ground of parity with the other two accused, Manoranjan called the allegations against him “vague” with Delhi Police wrongly attributing Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act charges against him.
The bench said there was no parity since those granted bail had protested outside Parliament whereas the present accused were inside it.
The trial court noted Neelam Azad, Manoranjan D, Sagar Sharma, Amol Dhanraj Shinde, Lalit Jha and Mahesh Kumawat already had the knowledge about the threat given by designated terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannu for targeting Parliament on December 13, 2023.
While four were taken into custody from the spot, Jha and Kumawat were arrested later. PTI SKV SKV AMK AMK
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