Plotting On Facebook & Instagram, Recce Before Intrusion: How Accused Planned Parliament Security Breach

According to police, all the six accused were in touch with each other over Instagram and other social media platforms.

Police personnel investigate after two people jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber from the public gallery. ( Image Source :PTI )

New Delhi: Six persons hailing from different cities got together at a house in Gurugram after they hatched a plan to intrude into the Parliament on Wednesday, news agency PTI reported. Two of them identified as Manoranjan D and Sagar Sharma entered the Parliament building where they jumped down from the visitors’ gallery, hurling smoke cannisters in the Lok Sabha, while two others, Neelam and Amol Shinde, sprayed coloured gas from cannisters and shouted slogans outside the Parliament building at the same time.

They had two other suspected associates - Lalit and Vishal Sharma. Police have detained five of them and efforts are underway to nab Lalit.

According to police, all six of them were in touch with each other over Instagram and other social media platforms, PTI reported. They had known each other for four years and after hatching the plan, they had even conducted a recce of the Parliament premises, as per the report. They even contacted each other through Facebook and were part of a group named after Bhagat Singh, The Indian Express reported citing Delhi Police sources. 

All of them stayed at the rented house of Vishal Sharma and his wife Rakhi at Sector 7 in Gurugram.

Manoranjan D, who hails from Karnataka’s Mysuru, completed his BE in 2016 and was looking after the family farm. He got the visitor’s pass to enter Lok Sabha from the office of BJP MP Pratap Simha and introduced Sagar Sharma, hailing from Uttar Pradesh, as a friend, PTI reported. The accused was seeking Parliament pass from Simha for over 3 months.

Shinde belongs to a Scheduled Caste community and is a BA graduate. He was engaged in odd jobs as a daily wager and was preparing for police and army recruitment exams.

Neelam was staying at a PG accommodation in Hisar for the last five months. She was preparing for competitive examinations.

According to police, the security breach was well-planned and well-coordinated and Shinde’s interrogation revealed the six of them had known each other through social media.

"Five of them stayed at Vishal's residence in Gurugram before coming to Parliament. As per the plan, all six wanted to go inside parliament but only two got passes," PTI quoted a police source as saying.

According to the PTI report, Sagar Sharma used to visit Vishal Sharma's house often and they were in contact for a long time. Vishal Sharma also has a criminal background, police said.