Four Arrested For Lok Sabha Security Breach: What We Know So Far
A total of four people have been arrested in connection with the security scare inside the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, which was also the anniversary of the 2001 Parliament Attack.
Manoranjan D and his co-accused Sagar Sharma were the duo who jumped from the public gallery and hurled a gas canister. At the same time, the other two, Neelam Devi and Amol Shinde, were arrested from outside the Parliament.
Who is Devaraje Manoranjan?
According to reports, Devaraje Manoranjan, a native of Mysuru in Karnataka, got the visitor passes issued to him and the co-accused by BJP MP Prathap Simha.
Manoranjan introduced co-accused Sagar Sharma as a friend to the MP's office and got passes issued to them on the pretext of watching the new Parliament.
Manoranjan, who holds an undergraduate degree in Computer science from a college in Mysuru, was moving to Bengaluru and New Delhi.
Not much is known about Sharma, but an Aadhaar card with a Lucknow address was reportedly found on them.
Who are the two arrested outside Parliament?
As far as Neelam Devi and Amol Shinde are concerned, they were detained for protesting outside Parliament using coloured gas canisters.
Neelam, who hails from Haryana's Hisar, was studying for the civil services entrance exam. It is unclear how the two were linked to the chaos inside the Lok Sabha.
Delhi Police said the duo was not carrying mobile phones or other identity proof.
Both have refused to have any connection with any organisation, they said.
The police said that a special team is being formed to interrogate the detainees.
What eyewitnesses said?
According to eyewitnesses, the two men who jumped into the House's chamber were sitting quietly and disrupted the proceedings "all of a sudden".
"The protesters were not chanting any slogans while being seated at the public gallery and jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber all of a sudden," an eyewitness said.
"The moment the protesters jumped into the House's chamber, the MPs tried chasing them. The protesters also threw a smoke canister there. During the incident, we were evacuated as per security instructions," he said.
According to the eyewitnesses, around 30 to 40 visitors were seated at the gallery of Lok Sabha when the "security breach" took place.
"It was shocking to see such kind of an incident inside the Parliament, despite five layers of security," another eyewitness said.
How the incident exposed major security lapses?
While nobody was hurt, the security lapse, that too on the day of Parliament attack anniversary, has raised some serious questions.
Several opposition MPs also alleged that security arrangements in the new Parliament building are not sufficient and need to be addressed immediately.
"If Parliament security can be breached this way, how can the country be secure?" TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee asked.
He said the incident could have been more serious and questioned the Union Home Ministry's functioning.
"It could have been a repeat of the 2001 incident. What is the intelligence department of the Home Ministry doing? Nothing. The home minister is giving big speeches and cannot even maintain security in Parliament," Banerjee said.
Hanuman Beniwal, one of the MPs who caught the intruders, said it should be investigated who endorsed the visitors' passes for them.
"It should be investigated whose guests they were. They said, 'We are protesting, we do not have any (other) purpose'...," he said.
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