NEW DELHI, Dec 14
The group that breached Parliament on Wednesday bought Indian flags from North Delhi’s Sadar Bazaar in the morning, collected visitors’ passes from an MP’s personal assistant just hours earlier, and were careful not to lob the smoke canisters to ensure their actions are not construed as an attack, their questioning by the Delhi Police has revealed.
According to officials familiar with their questioning, the group’s members – Sagar Sharma (25) from Lucknow, Manoranjan D (33) from Mysuru, Neelam Azad (37) from Jind, Amol Shinde (25) from Latur and Lalit Mohan Jha from Kolkata – have given police enough details to piece together what transpired in the run-up to the incident. Another person was supposed to join them from Rajasthan, officials said, but he couldn’t make it in time.
According to an official, the accused first met virtually, via a Facebook group called the ‘Bhagat Singh Fan Page’, and eventually in person. About a year and a half ago, they met in Mysuru for “raising social issues”, said one official, adding that nine months ago, they met again and decided to use Parliament as a means to “register their protest”. In March, during the Budget session, Manoranjan visited Parliament to conduct a “recce”.
In July, Sagar, too, visited the Parliament complex, but returned to Lucknow without managing to enter.
The group got together in the national capital on December 10, three days before the incident. That day, Sagar took a train from Lucknow to Delhi, while Amol arrived from Maharashtra, and Neelam from Hisar. They all met at a Metro station.
That night, they reached the Gurgaon residence of Manoranjan’s friend Vishal Sharma alias Vicky. Lalit reached later that night via a train, and Manoranjan on a flight the next morning.
In Gurgaon, they spent their time arranging passes for the visitors’ gallery, with an aim to protest on December 14. But they got passes for a day earlier – which also happened to mark the anniversary of the 2001 Parliament attack.
On the morning of the incident, around 9 am, Sagar collected the visitors’ passes from an MP’s personal assistant at Mahadev Road. Around 10 am, he reached Sadar Bazaar, from where he got two Indian flags, and then headed to India Gate to meet the rest of the group.
Neelam, Manoranjan, Lalit and Amol came by a cab from Gurgaon, officials said.
They held a meeting at India Gate for around half an hour, and it was decided that Sagar and Manoranjan would enter Parliament since they had only two passes. Both were given a yellow smoke bomb, which they hid in the cavity of the shoes – a local cobbler had helped make the tweaks – that Sagar had bought from Lucknow.
Given their experience during the recce, they knew security would not check the shoes.
They also decided not to throw the smoke bombs but to instead hold them in their hands so it can be relayed that they are harmless.
Sagar also hid some pamphlets in the shoes, which were supposed to be thrown afterwards, but the duo were apprehended before they could do so.
Neelam, Amol and Lalit were supposed to protest outside Parliament, and Lalit was also supposed to make a Facebook Live of the protest. He also took away the phones of the rest of the group. To ensure they used the smoke canisters at the same time, it was decided to start the protest 35 minutes after Sagar and Manoranjan entered.
Slogans raised by the group include “Hindustan Zindabad”, “Jai Hind”, “Jai Bhim”, “Tanashahi band karo”, “Loktantra bachao sanvidhan bachao”, and “Bhajpa sarkar hosh mein aao”.
According to officials, Manoranjan said during questioning that he wanted to “get the attention of the Prime Minister so the government looks after issues such as inflation, poverty, etc.”
