• IB Officers from Delhi visit Mysuru, begin probe
• Accused first met in Mysuru, say Delhi Cops

New Delhi / Mysuru: Five persons — Sagar Sharma, Neelam Azad, D. Manoranjan, Amol Shinde and Vicky Sharma — who have been arrested in connection with the security breach in Parliament yesterday have been charged under anti-terror law, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), besides sections in Indian Penal Code (IPC). 

They are scheduled to be produced in a Court today. Delhi Police’s anti-terror cell is questioning the accused and IPC charges invoked against them include those relating to criminal conspiracy, promoting enmity and use of force to prevent a public servant from exercising duty. The accused used yellow smoke canisters inside LS and outside Parliament. Lalit Jha shot videos of the other accused deploying smoke canisters outside and fled with their cell phones. He is on the run. Vicky Sharma allegedly sheltered the other accused at his Gurgaon (Gurugram) home. He and his wife have been arrested.

Accused met in Mysuru 

The Delhi Police’s investigation so far has found that the accused met in Mysuru about one-and-a-half years back and discussed how to go about the plan. Another meeting took place about nine months back at a farmers’ protest near Chandigarh Airport. 

Sagar Sharma came to Delhi from Lucknow this July. During that visit, he could not enter Parliament, but recced it from outside, carefully noting the security checks. To execute the plan for yesterday, the accused reached Delhi last Sunday. They put up at Vicky Sharma’s home in Gurugram.

Amol Shinde got the smoke canisters from his hometown in Maharashtra and the canisters were distributed among the members of the group during a meeting at India Gate yesterday. All the six wanted to go inside Parliament, but only Sagar Sharma and Manoranjan managed to get the passes.

No common thread between them

The accused come from diverse educational backgrounds, different strata of society and belong to various regions of the country. With their ages also varying from the mid-20s to the late 30s, on the surface, there seems to be no common thread between them.

As investigators have dug a little deeper, however, some links have emerged — all of them are members of a social media page called the ‘Bhagat Singh Fan Club’ and at least two, Neelam Azad and Amol Shinde, failed to get the jobs despite repeated attempts. The accused have told the police that they planned the breach to highlight issues like unemployment, inflation and the violence in Manipur, and ensure that they are discussed in Parliament. 

The Ministry of Home Affairs has ordered an enquiry and a panel has been set up under Anish Dayal Singh, DG, CRPF, involving other security agencies and experts.

IB Officers, State Intelligence team coordinate with Mysuru Police

Meanwhile, a team of two Intelligence Bureau (IB) Officers from New Delhi have arrived in Mysuru  and are investigating the antecedents of Manoranjan and are probing his links with any other organisation.

 The IB team is assisted by the State Intelligence and local Police officers. They are operating in utmost secrecy and the media has been kept outside with no access to names and photos. The locality of Manoranjan’s house has been cordoned off. 

Apart from searching the house of Manoranjan in Vijayanagar Second Stage, the IB team is also speaking to the local Police officers who had visited Manoranjan’s house — at 3rd Cross, 15th Main — yesterday. Manoranjan’s room is located on the second floor of the house and the Police have recovered several revolutionary literature and texts.

The teams are looking for computers, phones or laptops that were in Manoranjan’s possession. 

What has baffled the Police is how the accused — coming from different States, diverse educational backgrounds and different social status — could connect with each other and plan together to breach the high security zone. Nationwide, different IB teams are collating data, electronic evidence, social media footprint to trace the links to any terror organisations.

State intelligence officers and the local Police will speak to neighbours, Manoranjan’s friends and will visit the places in Bengaluru where he stayed.