The stunning breach of India’s Parliament on Wednesday was a result of at least 18 months of meticulous planning and several meetings among the accused, all of whom hailed from different states but had one common link – a social media page called the Bhagat Singh Fan Club, police officials said.
The shocking scenes, which unfolded on the anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attack on the parliament, saw Sagar Sharma and Manoranjan D jumping from the visitors’ gallery into the chamber of the Lok Sabha around 1pm.
Both deployed canisters containing yellow smoke, and Sharma jumped over desks towards the Speaker’s chair before he was overpowered by MPs and beaten.
Outside Parliament, Neelam Azad and Amol Shinde used canisters with yellow and red smoke and shouted slogans against “dictatorship”.
While Sharma is a Lucknow resident, Manoranjan is from Mysuru, Neelam from Jind in Haryana and Shinde from Maharashtra.
The other two accused are Lalit Jha, who allegedly shot videos of Neelam and Shinde using the canisters, and Vicky Sharma, in whose house the accused stayed before the attack. Jha is from Bihar while Vicky is from Gurgaon, a city near Delhi.
According to Delhi Police, the first meeting of the accused took place in Mysuru around 18 months ago. It was at this meeting that they talked about various ways of highlighting issues which they believed Parliament should discuss, including unemployment, inflation and the violence in Manipur.
Another meeting was held in March, near Chandigarh airport, and that was when a detailed plan took shape.
In July, Sharma reached New Delhi from Lucknow to recce the Parliament complex. Police said he carried out a recce of the building from outside, took note of all the security arrangements and reported back to the rest of the group.
Sharma, Manoranjan, Neelam and Shinde reached Delhi last Sunday and headed to Vicky’s house in Gurgaon, where they stayed until Wednesday.
Police said that, on the day of the breach, the accused gathered at India Gate in Delhi where Shinde distributed the canisters.
The initial plan involved all six going inside Parliament, but they managed to get passes only for Sharma and Manoranjan.
Several MPs have raised the issue of how the pair could enter Parliament on a day when security was tight.
Security agencies would have also been on alert since Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun had threatened to attack Parliament “on or before Dec 13”. No link, however, has been established between Pannun’s threat and the breach.
Sharma and Manoranjan have been arrested, along with Neelam, Shinde, Vicky and his wife. Jha, who ran away with the mobile phones of all involved, is still at large.
Indo-Asian News Service
