The four persons arrested for the security breach in Parliament on December 13 were part of a “well-planned conspiracy”, the Delhi Police told a city court on Thursday, according to The Hindu.
The police have invoked provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act against the four accused persons – identified as Manoranjan D, Sagar Sharma, Neelam Azad and Amol Shinde. On Thursday, the court sent them to police custody for seven days.
On December 13, Manoranjan and Sharma jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber with canisters emitting yellow smoke. Outside Parliament, Azad and Shinde opened smoke canisters and shouted “stop dictatorship”.
The police told the court on Thursday that the accused persons had posted pamphlets on social media referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a “missing person” and declaring that a “reward” for finding him would be paid by a Swiss bank
“Since he [Modi] is our representative to the world, he has been shown as missing, like a proclaimed offender,” Additional Public Prosecutor Atul Srivastava told the court, according to Live Law. “This shows what they were trying to do.”
The additional public prosecutor said the accused persons may have been associated with terrorist organisations.
The prosecution had sought police custody for 15 days, saying that the accused persons needed to be taken to Mumbai and Lucknow as part of the investigation. The defence counsel, on the other hand, contended that four to five days of police custody would be enough for this purpose, The Hindu reported.
Meanwhile, the main conspirator of the security breach, Lalit Mohan Jha, surrendered before the police, reported The Indian Express, quoting a police official.
After Manoranjan, Sharma, Azad and Shinde were arrested, Jha reportedly fled to Rajasthan’s Kuchaman, where he met one of his associates, Mahesh, and destroyed the mobile phones of all the accused persons.
Following this, Jha and Mahesh left for the Capital and were found by the Delhi Police near Dhaula Kuan. They were handed over to the Counter-Intelligence Unit of the Special Cell, which is investigating the security breach.
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