Parliament Security Breach Accused Wanted To Create Anarchy In The Country; Foreign Link To Be Probed

The people involved in the Parliament security breach wanted to create anarchy in the country in order to compel the government to meet their demands, the Delhi Police informed a city court.

Lalit Jha, who is the "mastermind" of the entire conspiracy, was sent to seven-day police custody on Friday. He hails from West Bengal. Police claimed in the Patiala House court that he admitted that the accused met many times to hatch the conspiracy to breach Parliament security.

During the hearing in the Patiala House court, police said, "Jha disclosed that they wanted to create anarchy in the country so that they can compel the government to meet their demands."

The cops will question him to determine whether the accused had affiliations with any enemy nation or terrorist organization. On the next course of the investigation, a senior police officer stated that they plan to send Jha to Rajasthan to locate the places where he disposed of his phone and destroyed the phones of others.

"After the incident, he fled to Rajasthan where he stayed for two days and returned to Delhi last night," the officer said.

The major challenge for the investigating officers is that the police do not have the mobile phones of the accused that could help them trace the origin of the conspiracy and ascertain the involvement of more people.

After the incident, Jha fled to Nagaur in Rajasthan where his stay was arranged by his cousins Kumawat and Kailash, sources told PTI.

"We are planning to approach Parliament to seek permission for recreating the crime scene inside the House and outside the Parliament building. Lalit Jha, who was arrested on Thursday, revealed during the interrogation that he had thrown his phone near the Delhi-Jaipur border and destroyed the phones of the other accused," the news agency quoted an officer as saying.

Foreign Link Probed
Police suspect the involvement of foreign funding as the way the accused made the planning and visited Delhi multiple times to do the recce of the act.

Police are also looking for the person who helped them in designing the shoes with cavities to hide canisters, sources added.

On being asked, why he committed the act, Jha told police that they were upset with "unemployment".

Authorities have gathered CCTV footage from Parliament and its surroundings to determine if the accused were accompanied by others prior to the incident.

Sources indicate that data from active mobile phones in the vicinity of Parliament at the time of the incident is also being compiled.

There is a police suspicion that the accused had a plan b in place, in case this plan failed.

"He took the phones (of other accused) to hide them and to destroy evidence as part of the larger conspiracy. He disclosed that he threw his phone away on way from Jaipur to Delhi." Police said Jha's custodial interrogation was required for "in depth investigation to unearth the larger conspiracy behind the attack, involvement of other persons and to find the actual motive behind the attack".

Besides, he was also required to be interrogated to ascertain whether the accused had an association with any enemy country or terrorist organisation, police said.

"We need him to confront the accused with each other, to locate the mobile phones, to take him to locate the hotel where stayed for four days, and to know the financial transaction and funding behind the attack," police told the court.

The FIR registered in the matter details the modus operandi used by the accused duo of Sagar Sharma and Manoranjan D to smuggle smoke canisters inside the Parliament.

The two persons had smuggled them in cavities cut into the left sole of custom-made sports shoes supported by thick rubber layers, according to the FIR.

The pamphlets that the duo -- Manorajan D and Sagar Sharma -- carried into the Lok Sabha had the picture of a fist against the backdrop of a tricolour, a slogan in Hindi and a slogan in English on the Manipur violence issue.

Around the same time, two others -- Amol Shinde and Neelam Devi -- sprayed coloured gas from canisters while shouting "tanashahi nahi chalegi" outside Parliament premises.

Police have filed terrorism charges under the stringent UAPA against the four people.

In what could help Delhi Police gauge the mindset of Sagar Sharma in the lead-up to the incident, their counterpart in Lucknow has forwarded them a diary, allegedly belonging to the accused.

The family members of Sharma (28) had handed over the diary to the local police which has been forwarded to investigators of Delhi Police probing the matter, police officials in Lucknow said.

Shambhu Jha, the elder brother of Lalit, said the entire family is still in a state of disbelief.

"We don't know how he got involved in all this. He always stayed away from trouble. He was a calm and quiet kid since childhood and was very introvert. We knew he was involved with NGOs and, apart from being a private tutor, we are really shocked to see his images on television channels," Shambhu said.