Calibrated breach, planned over months

Security apparatus caught off guard as visitors’ smuggle incendiary items into the highest seat of democracy with ease

- Sanjeev K Jha, Hemani Bhandari

Four men and a woman who were responsible for the gravest security breach in Parliament in two decades on Wednesday first met on a Facebook group dedicated to fans of freedom fighter Bhagat Singh, and three of them conducted a recce of the Lok Sabha premises during the Monsoon session, Delhi Police investigators said on Wednesday.

The five people came to Delhi from their respective places of residence three days ago and lived in Gurugram with a friend, who may not have known of their plans, added the investigators.

Police detained Sagar Sharma and Manoranjan D, who leapt into the Lower House from the visitor's gallery on Wednesday afternoon and released coloured gas, and Neelam Singh and Amol Shinde, who protested outside the building with similar gas canisters and shouted slogans. Investigators are on the lookout for a fifth alleged accomplice, identified as Lalit Jha from Gurugram.

A senior officer of the Delhi Police, who are interrogating the suspects in the Parliament Street Police station, said that all the five suspects were allegedly part of a Facebook group named Bhagat Singh Fans' Club and knew each other for the last one year.

"Three people, including Manoranjan and Shinde, had visited Parliament during the Monsoon session as a part of the recce for this protest. They were aware of the height of the visitors' gallery from the parliamentarians' seats and knew that they could jump below without hurting themselves," said the officer, requesting anonymity.

To be sure, the Monsoon session was conducted in the old Parliament and the new building was only inaugurated during a special session in September.