Lalit Mohan Jha, the ‘mastermind’ behind the shocking security breach of Parliament, along with his co-accused, wanted to ‘create anarchy’ in the country and ‘compel’ the government to meet their demands, investigators told a Delhi court on Friday. Police also suspect the involvement of foreign funding in the case.
Delhi police is likely to seek the Parliament’s permission to recreate the December 13 incident that unfolded on the anniversary of the 2001 attack on it, according to sources.
So far, six people have been arrested in connection with the major security breach at Parliament involving smoke bombs and protests. While Lalit Jha was arrested after he surrendered to the police, Sagar Sharma and Manoranjan D were arrested from inside the Lok Sabha chamber, and Neelam Devi and Amol Shinde were detained outside the Parliament complex. Another accused Mahesh Kumawat was arrested on Saturday.
Jha, who hails from West Bengal, was sent to seven-day police custody on Friday after his arrest last night.
Police claimed in the Patiala House court that Jha admitted that the accused met many times to hatch the conspiracy to breach Parliament security. The investigators also have to interrogate him to ascertain whether the accused had an association with any enemy country or terrorist organisation.
Police Searching For Phones of Accused
The biggest challenge, before the police in the case, is the fact that the police do not have the mobile phones of the accused that could help them trace the origin of the conspiracy and ascertain the involvement of more people.
“After the incident, he fled to Rajasthan where he stayed for two days and returned to Delhi last night,” a senior police officer privy to the development said.
Talking about the future course of the investigation, the officer said that they would be taking Jha to Rajasthan to trace the places where he threw his phone and burnt the phones of others.
Jha fled to Nagaur in Rajasthan after the incident. Kumawat and Kailash, who are cousins, arranged his stay there, sources said.
“We are planning to approach Parliament to seek permission for recreating the crime scene inside the House and outside the Parliament building. Lalit Jha, who was arrested on Thursday, revealed during the interrogation that he had thrown his phone near the Delhi-Jaipur border and destroyed the phones of the other accused,” said the officer.
Police Suspect Accused Had ‘Foreign Funding’
Police suspect the involvement of foreign funding as the way the accused made the planning and visited Delhi multiple times to do the recce of the act.
Investigators are also looking for the person who helped them in designing the shoes with cavities to hide canisters, sources added.
Police have collected CCTV footage from Parliament and the vicinity to know if the accused were accompanied by other persons before the act.
Dump data of mobile phones active at the time of the incident around Parliament is also being collected, sources said.
Accused Had ‘Plan B’
The police suspect that the accused had a plan B, in case their main plan failed.
During the hearing in the Patiala House court, police said, “Jha disclosed that they wanted to create anarchy in the country so that they can compel the government to meet their demands.
“He took the phones (of other accused) to hide them and to destroy evidence as part of the larger conspiracy. He disclosed that he threw his phone away on his way from Jaipur to Delhi.” Police said Jha’s custodial interrogation was required for “in-depth investigation to unearth the larger conspiracy behind the attack, involvement of other persons and to find the actual motive behind the attack”.
Links To Enemy Country or Terrorist Being Probed
Besides, he was also required to be interrogated to ascertain whether the accused had an association with any enemy country or terrorist organisation, police said.
“We need him to confront the accused with each other, to locate the mobile phones, to take him to locate the hotel where stayed for four days, and to know the financial transaction and funding behind the attack,” police told the court.
The FIR registered in the matter details the modus operandi used by the accused duo of Sagar Sharma and Manoranjan D to smuggle smoke canisters inside the Parliament.
Accused Had Custom Made Shoes
The two persons had smuggled them in cavities cut into the left sole of custom-made sports shoes supported by thick rubber layers, according to the FIR.
The pamphlets that the duo — Manorajan D and Sagar Sharma — carried into the Lok Sabha had the picture of a fist against the backdrop of a tricolour, a slogan in Hindi and a slogan in English on the Manipur violence issue.
Around the same time, two others — Amol Shinde and Neelam Devi — sprayed coloured gas from canisters while shouting “tanashahi nahi chalegi” outside Parliament premises.
UAPA Invoked Against 4 Accused
Police have filed terrorism charges under the stringent UAPA against the four people.
In what could help Delhi Police gauge the mindset of Sagar Sharma in the lead-up to the incident, their counterpart in Lucknow has forwarded them a diary, allegedly belonging to the accused.
The family members of Sharma (28) had handed over the diary to the local police which has been forwarded to investigators of Delhi Police probing the matter, police officials in Lucknow said.
Jha’s Family In Shock
Shambhu Jha, the elder brother of Lalit, said the entire family is still in a state of disbelief.
“We don’t know how he got involved in all this. He always stayed away from trouble. He was a calm and quiet kid since childhood and was very introverted. We knew he was involved with NGOs and, apart from being a private tutor, we are shocked to see his images on television channels,” Shambhu said.
(With PTI Inputs)
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