Police find House breach suspects' phones burned

Police have recovered broken and burnt cellphones that Lalit Jha, the alleged mastermind of Wednesday's Parliament security breach, tried to destroy in Kuchaman, officials aware of the development said.

- Karn Pratap Singh

Jha had fled to the city near Nagaur in western Rajasthan after the incident.

The remains of at least four damaged phones were recovered on Saturday near a guest house in Kuchaman (where Jha stayed overnight) by a team of the Delhi Police special cell that interrogated Jha after he was arrested on Thursday and taken to locate the place where he broke and tried burning the phones.

Jha and his associates have been booked under sections 16 and 18 of the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and sections 186,353,452,153,34 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Section 201 and other relevant IPC sections have been added to the first information report in view of the destruction of evidence by the arrested, the officers said.

Jha's personal mobile phone is yet to be found. Jha (35) had earlier told police that he destroyed his phone as did his five associates-Sagar Sharma (27), Manoranjan D (34), Amol Shinde (25), Neelam Singh (37), and Mahesh Kumawat (32) who were allegedly part of the conspiracy to breach Parliament's security. Investigators suspect he has been misleading them by making false claims regarding his phone, the officers said.