New Delhi: The security breach Wednesday during the ongoing winter session of Parliament — when two men jumped from the visitors’ gallery onto the members’ benches in Lok Sabha and set off a smoke canister — is a “larger conspiracy” that needs to be unearthed, investigators have told ThePrint.
According to a source in the police, the accused were “funded” by a “channel” of an “organisation” which is now under probe.
“This is an act of terror. Also, this is part of a larger conspiracy as the attack was well planned till the last detail. Initial investigation has revealed that there is an organisation behind this,” the source said.
According to sources, the conspiracy to execute the act was hatched months ago, with one of the accused, D. Manoranjan, having conducted a recce of Parliament to take “stock of the security measures” inside the building.
Manoranjan allegedly went to the visitor’s gallery with a valid pass to explore the entry process and security measures. That was when he realised that visitors are not asked to remove their shoes during a security check, giving him the idea of concealing the canister in his footwear, police sources said.
The shoes, sources said, were custom-made from Lucknow to fit the canister.
“Sagar got the shoes made in Lucknow from a cobbler. They will be taken to Lucknow for investigation,” the source said.
Five men have been arrested in the case so far and one detained.
The arrested have been identified as Manoranjan from Mysuru (who holds an engineering degree), Sagar Sharma (a graduate from Lucknow), Neelam Azad (a civil service aspirant from Hisar), Amol Shinde (a graduate from Latur) and Lalit Jha, who was held Thursday night in Delhi.
Jha, a native of Bihar, is believed to have the mobile phones of all other accused. One Vicky (Vishal Sharma) has been detained.
“Jha had fled with their mobile phones because they feared that their links would get exposed if their phones were seized. The moment he realised that his associates had been detained, he fled. They had anticipated this,” the source said.
While Manoranjan and Sharma jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber from the public gallery Wednesday afternoon and opened the canister that emitted a yellow-coloured gas, Azad and Shinde were nabbed outside Parliament, where they too opened a gas canister and raised slogans like “tanashahi nahi chalegi (down with dictatorship)”.
Police sources said the accused had collected at India Gate before heading to the Parliament building and had decided they would not throw the canister inside the premises but instead hold it in their hands to convey that it was harmless.
The canisters were purchased by Shinde in Latur, said the sources.
According to police sources, the men claimed during questioning that they planned the breach to “protest against unemployment and compel policymakers to acknowledge their concerns”.
Police have not yet found any past criminal records of the accused.
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Funding under probe
According to police sources, the accused had connected digitally on Meta and were part of several other protests, including farmers’ agitations.
The source mentioned earlier said the group had met two times before meeting in Delhi to carry out their plan.
They added that the source of their funds is now under investigation. “We need to see who funded their travel and arranged for all logistics. We will be scanning their bank accounts,” the source said.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)