“Jha came to Kartavya Path Police station where he was arrested. He was handed over to Special Cell,” an officer said.
The Lok Sabha Secretariat has suspended eight Delhi Police security personnel over the security breach. Rampal, Arvind, Vir Das, Ganesh, Anil, Pradeep, Vimitt and Narendra were the eight Lok Sabha personnel suspended.
Police said they are investigating the motive and conspiracy behind the incident and plan to cross-examine all the accused to unravel the plot. All six were using ‘Signal’ chat app to avoid any suspicion and Karnataka-based Manoranjan D is believed to have motivated the other suspects to participate in the act. He used to frequently travel to New Delhi and Bengaluru for meetings. He was the one who recced Parliament twice — first during the monsoon session and then the special session of Parliament in September, police said.
The questioning of the suspects revealed that they had stayed at Vishal’s residence on an earlier occasion as well. The four accused – Manoranjan D, Sagar Sharma, Amol Shinde and Neelam Devi – were produced before special judge for NIA cases, Hardeep Kaur, by the Delhi Police, who sought their custodial interrogation for 15 days. Police have contended that the incident resembled a terror attack and questioned the motive. They said the accused smuggled smoke canisters in their shoes. The men had purchased two pairs of shoes from Lucknow and brought them here. The canisters were purchased from Mumbai. The accused were also found carrying some pamphlets, police claimed.
Manoranjan and Sagar had jumped into the Lok Sabha chambers on Wednesday and set off two canisters emitting yellow smoke while one of them leaped over the tables to run towards the Speaker’s chair. Outside Parliament, two others burst similar red and yellow coloured smoke bombs and shouted anti-government slogans. A committee, headed by DG CrPF, has been set up to look into the reasons for the breach in security, identify the lapses and recommend further action.
