Meeting on Facebook, March Parliament Inspection: How Six Accused Prepared Security Fear 1.5 Years Ago

Through the “Bhagat Singh Fan Club” page on Facebook, the main accused of the security breach at Parliament on Wednesday—who leaped from the visitor’s gallery to the Lok Sabha chamber—met the other accused, who demonstrated outside the building.

On Wednesday afternoon, Sagar Sharma and Manoranjan D leaped from the visitor’s gallery into the Lok Sabha chamber and set off canisters filled with yellow smoke. The event happened on the anniversary of the assault on the Parliament in 2001.

Sagar Sharma, Manoranjan D, Neelam Azad, Amol Shinde, and Lalit Jha originally met in Mysore around 18 months ago with the intention of advancing social concerns via “some means,” according to intelligence reports.

Reconvening around nine months before, they made the decision to demonstrate outside the Parliament, according to the sources. Using a visitor’s permit, Manoranjan conducted a building reconnaissance during the March budget session in Parliament.

E-rickshaw driver Sagar Sharma visited Parliament in New Delhi in July but left without going inside the premises.

Sharma, an Uttar Pradeshi citizen from Lucknow, arrived at the New Delhi Railway Station late on December 10. An hour later, Sharma was greeted at the New Delhi Metro Station by Neelam Azad from Hisar, Haryana, and Shinde from Maharashtra. Later that night, Bihar’s Lalit Jha joined them, and on December 11, early in the morning, Manoranjan flew from Mysore to Delhi.

Together, they headed to Gurgaon to stay at the home of Manoranjan’s friend Vicky Jain until December 13. During that time, they set up visitor permits for Parliament, where they planned to stage a protest on December 14. However, they were only given two permits, so they decided to abort the original plan for all six of them to enter Parliament and only allow Sharma and Manoranjan to enter.

According to sources, on December 14, around nine in the morning, Sharma picked up the Parliament passes from another Sagar (a PA from MP) at 18 Mahadev Road. Around ten in the morning, he set out for Sadar Bazaar, where he purchased two Indian flags, and arrived at India Gate, where the throng assembled.

After around thirty minutes of deliberation, they all agreed that Sagar and Manoranjan would enter the Parliament building at India Gate.

Shinde reportedly gave Manoranjan and Sharma the canisters at India Gate that he had brought from his native Maharashtra, according to sources.

An hour later, at around 2:00 pm, Sharma and Manoranjan stormed into the House chamber of the Parliament and hurled the canisters. They were taken into custody the same day as Vicky Sharma, Neelam, and Shinde. However, after filming the footage of Neelam and Shinde detonating the canisters, Lalit Jha fled while taking the cell phones of all those involved.

It has been discovered that, in addition to concealing some leaflets in his shoes, Sharma intended to toss them into the House after the detonation of the canisters.

Manoranjan, Jha, Shinde, and Sharma had previously met in Gurgaon. The sources said that Sharma used to speak with Manoranjan two or three times per week.