New Delhi: The security breach at the ongoing winter session of Parliament Wednesday — when two men jumped onto the members’ benches from the visitors’ gallery and threw a smoke canister — was allegedly hatched months ago, with one of the accused, D. Manoranjan, having conducted a recce of the Parliament to take “stock of the security measures” inside the building, ThePrint has learnt.
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.
“Manoranjan got a cavity made inside his shoe to conceal it. That is how he was able to take it inside, bypassing all security. He can be seen removing his shoe when he opens the canister,” one of the sources said.
The six people allegedly involved in the breach were part of a social media group named ‘Justice for Azad Bhagat Singh’, intelligence sources told ThePrint
While five of them — identified as D. Manoranjan from Mysuru (who holds an engineering degree), Sagar Sharma (a graduate from Lucknow), Neelam Azad (a civil service aspirant from Hisar), Anmol Shinde (a graduate from Latur) and Vicky (Vishal Sharma) — have been arrested, another accused, Lalit Jha is on the run, said police sources.
According to the sources, the accused have been booked under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
While Manoranjan and Sharma jumped into the chamber from the public gallery Wednesday afternoon and opened canisters that emitted a yellow-colored 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)”.
According to police sources, the four people had 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 four arrested.
The suspects also allegedly claimed during their questioning that they had connected digitally on Facebook and were part of several other protests, including one in Mohali to rename its airport as Shaheed Bhagat Singh Airport. The airport — earlier known as Chandigarh International Airport — was renamed the Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport, Chandigarh, last year.
One of the accused, Azad, was also part of the 2020-21 farmers’ protest against three controversial farm laws which have now been repealed, and a protest by wrestlers earlier this year against former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, her brother has told the media.
Wednesday’s incident comes on the anniversary of the 13 December attack on the old Parliament building 22 years ago, which had killed eight security personnel and a gardener. All five terrorists were also killed. Former Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front militant who had surrendered in 1994, Afzal Guru was hanged in 2013 for his role in the incident.
What raises further questions about Wednesday’s security breach is that just days ago, US-Canada-based Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun threatened to attack the Indian “Parliament on or before 13 December”, following which, intelligence sources said, the security had been “stepped up”.
‘Pass collected at 9 am, meeting at India Gate — the plan’
According to a second police source, the accused said during interrogation that they — Azad, Manoranjan, Sharma, Shinde and Jha, met in the house of their associate Vicky, in Gurgaon on 10 December to plan the execution of Wednesday’s incident.
It was decided that Sharma would collect the passes Wednesday morning around 9 am from the secretary of BJP MP Pratap Simha and reach India Gate. How the accused knew the MP or his secretary is not known yet, sources said.
“Before this, the accused also purchased some Indian flags from Sadar Bazar and then gathered at India Gate around 10 am. The plan was to enter Parliament around noon,” the source said.
According to the source, while Sharma and Manoranjan went inside the Parliament building with the canister concealed in Manoranjan’s shoe, Azad and Shinde stayed outside to raise slogans.
“While Azad and Shinde were raising slogans, another accused, Jha, was taking their videos. Soon after the police moved to detain the accused, Jha fled,” the source said.
According to the source, a forensic team visited the spot and seized the canister. It was found that it had potassium with organic dye that may have caused irritation in the eyes of people present in the area. However, a chemical analysis of it will be carried out, sources said.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)