Brain Behind Parliament Breach Still On Run, Raids On To Catch Him

Influenced by revolutionery Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Lalit and others were highly motivated to commit an act which could draw the country's attention to them, police said.

Updated on: 14 December 2023 12:55 pm

Winter session of Parliament

The Delhi Police is conducting raids to the nab the sixth man suspected to be a key part of the group that breached Parliament, an officer said on Thursday.

A resident of Kolkata, Lalit Jha is a teacher by profession and was the main conspirators of the security breach, police said. Influenced by revolutionery Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Lalit and others were highly motivated to commit an act which could draw the country's attention to them, they said.

The security agencies so far have not found their connections with any terror group, the officer said. According to the person, all six joined a Bhagat Singh fan page on Facebook after coming in touch with each other on social media. Lalit, Sagar Sharma, and Maoranjan D had about a year ago met in Mysore where they made a plan to barge into the parliament. They later added Neelam and Amol into the plan.

Being a teacher, Lalit took the lead and instructed Manoranjan to do a reccee of all entry points of the Parliament during the Monsoon Session."In July, Manoranjan came to Delhi and went inside the parliament on a visitor pass issued on the name of an MP. There, he got to know that the frisking of shoes does not happen," the officer privy to the investigations said.

On Wednesday, Lalit came with the four others to the Parliament. When they got passes for only two of them - Lalit decided to take the mobile phones of all four - Sagar, Manoranjan, Neelam and Amol – with him. The colour canisters, which were sprayed inside and outside the Parliament complex, had been brought by Amol from Kalyan, Maharashtra. Sagar and Manoranjan went inside, while Neelam and Amol stayed outside at the gate where they too opened the canisters, which emitted yellow and red smoke, the officer said.

Lalit later posted the video of the incident on his Instagram account and also shared it with Vishal Sharma alias Vickey –- also part of the group — soon after Neelam and Amol were detained from outside the parliament, the officer added.

Lalit's last location was traced in Neemrana on the Rajasthan-Haryana Border. Police had earlier said that all five had gathered on December 10 and stayed at Vishal Sharma's residence in Gurugram.

Neelam, Manoranjan, Amol, and Vishal are in custody and have been questioned by the Delhi Police Special cell and other security agencies.