Accused Had Pamphlets Calling PM Modi a 'Missing Person': Delhi Police to Court

While the four accused have been booked under UAPA, the fifth accused, Lalit Jha, was arrested on Thursday evening.

The four persons, arrested for the security breach in Parliament on 13 December, had carried pamphlets in which they called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a "missing person," and declared a reward from Swiss Bank for 'finding him', the Delhi Police told the Patiala House Court on Thursday, 14 December, Bar and Bench reported.

The court sent the four accused — Sagar Sharma, Manoranjan D, Neelam and Anmol Shinde — to a seven-day police custody.

The accused also put up social media posts in which they claimed that PM Modi was a "proclaimed offender." "He (PM Modi) has been shown like a proclaimed offender," Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) Atul Srivastava told the court, Bar and Bench reported.

While the four accused have been booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), the fifth accused, Lalit Jha, alleged to be the main conspirator in the case, was arrested on Thursday evening after he surrendered himself to the Delhi Police.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Police’s Special Cell has also detained two more people in connection with the breach. The two have been identified as Mahesh and Kailash, Hindustan Times reported.

Need To Unearth 'Larger Conspiracy': Police to Court

The accused were produced in front of Additional Sessions Judge Hardeep Kaur’s court in Patiala Court. Before taking a call on police custody, the court provided counsel to the accused, as they were unrepresented.

Additional Public Prosecutor Srivastava told Kaur that the accused had created a Facebook group called "Bhagat Singh Fan Club."

The Delhi Police Special Cell, which is investigating the case, had initially sought for a 15-day custody of the accused stating that they needed to conduct an in-depth investigation to unearth the larger conspiracy behind the security breach, Bar and Bench reported.

“Their right was limited only to gallery. But they jumped from gallery towards where MPs were discussing and session was live. This erupted proceedings," Srivastava told the court, as quoted by Live Law.

Srivastava stated that the shoes in which the accused hid the smoke canisters were bought from Lucknow, and the canisters were from Mumbai.

While Sagar Sharma and Manoranjan jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber from the visitors' gallery and unleashed yellow coloured smoke from canisters, Amol Shinde and Neelam also sprayed coloured gas outside Parliament premises.

He said that the police needed time to take the accused to both cities and unearth the conspiracy to commit the “planned attack on the parliament."

“…and their association with other countries and other terrorist organisations (also has to be seen). Because such language normal person cannot write"

APP Srivastava to court, as quoted by Live Law

Hours after their arrest on Wednesday, the Delhi Police registered a case under sections 16, 18 of UAPA, and IPC sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 452 (trespass), 153 (wantonly giving provocation, with intent to cause riot), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions) and 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty).

According to several reports, the first meeting of the accused took place in Karnataka's Mysuru around 1.5 years ago. All five joined the fan page – 'Bhagat Singh Fan Clubs – on Facebook after coming in touch with each other on social media, earlier reports suggested.

As per initial interrogation, Delhi Police sources told The Quint that the accused were allegedly protesting against several issues including unemployment, inflation and Manipur violence.