Mastermind of Parliament security breach surrenders to Delhi Police
New Delhi/IBNS: Lalit Jha, the alleged mastermind of the security breach in Parliament, who was on the run, surrendered to the police on Thursday.
According to reports, he had gone to the police station on Kartavya Path (the boulevard renamed 'Path of Duty') and surrendered.
He has been formally arrested and the New Delhi District Police has handed him over to the Special Cell.
The Kolkata-based teacher was arrested from Delhi after being on the run for nearly two days.
According to reports, the man claimed that he had gone by bus to Rajasthan's Nagaur via Neemrana, where he was last seen, and stayed at a hotel with two friends.
Later, when he realised that the police were looking for him, he came back. He was accompanied by one Mahesh at the police station, reports said.
According to the police, Jha, who could not get a visitor's pass, had stayed outside and filmed the 'protest' by Neelam and Amol Shinde.
Sagar Sharma and D Manoranjan, who were caught inside the Lok Sabha, and Neelam Devi and Amol Shinde, arrested outside Parliament, have to be questioned in detail, the Delhi Police said.
Five people were arrested on Wednesday itself for the security breach in the afternoon in which two men got into the Lok Sabha and let off thick yellow smoke from canisters they smuggled in.
A total of six people were involved in the planning and execution of the major security breach in Parliament on Wednesday.
The four intruders - Sagar Sharma, D Manoranjan, Neelam Devi, and Amol Shinde - were arrested minutes after the smoke scare, and produced before a Delhi court earlier in the day.
They have been sent to a seven-day police custody.
According to the police, Jha, who could not get a visitor's pass, had stayed outside and filmed the 'protest' by Neelam and Amol Shinde.
The police sought custody for 15 days, arguing they needed time to take the four to Mumbai (where the smoke canisters were bought) and Lucknow (were shoes used to smuggle the canisters were bought), as well as uncover possible "terrorist" angles.
The police also suggested more people may have been involved in the smoke attack "as a common man cannot work with such planning".
The police also told the court the motives of those involved are, so far, unclear. The four accused reportedly told police they wanted to highlight issues like joblessness and the ethnic violence in Manipur, and that they wanted to bring these to MPs' attention.