Parliament security breach case: Sixth accused helped 'mastermind' Jha, destroyed phones, say police

New Delhi: A sixth arrest has been made in the Parliament security breach case - Mahesh Kumawat from Rajasthan's Nagaur who was allegedly in contact with the other accused for the last two years for hatching the conspiracy and had destroyed their mobile phones to get rid of the evidence, police said on Saturday.

All the accused, who have been remanded in police custody for a week, are from different states - Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. As the probe widened, police teams have left for their respective states for further investigation into the December 13 incident, sources said.

Special Judge Hardeep Kaur remanded Kumawat, 32, in Delhi police's custody after the public prosecutor told the court that the accused 'wanted to create anarchy in the country so that they can compel the government to meet their unjust and illegal demands'.

Sources said Kumawat will be confronted with the other accused during his questioning.

On Saturday, a team of the Delhi Police's Special Cell collected CCTV footage from inside and outside Parliament.

The Special Cell, which is investigating the case, also plans to record the statement of BJP MP Pratap Simha, who had authorised the visitor passes for the two men who breached security to enter the House, sources said.

Meanwhile, Lok Speaker Om Birla wrote a letter to all MPs, informing them that he had constituted a 'High Powered Committee' that would review all aspects of security in the Parliament complex and formulate a concrete action plan to ensure that such incidents do not recur.

This committee is in addition to a probe panel headed by the CRPF director general which is investigating the incident.

After Kumawat was arrested following his questioning and produced in court on Saturday, sources alleged that he was part of a parliament security breach plan where he had to stand on another gate with canisters but he could not come on December 13, the day of the incident.

"He (Kumwat) was in contact with other accused persons in hatching the conspiracy for the last two years. He helped the mastermind accused, Lalit Jha, in the destruction of mobile phone to destroy evidence and to hide the larger conspiracy," the prosecutor told the court, adding he was required to be questioned to unearth the entire conspiracy.

The police sought his custody for 15 days. The defence counsel opposed the police application, claiming that the Kumawat was arrested without any reason in a violation of his fundamental rights.

During the arguments, the prosecutor told the court that the custody of the accused was required 'to find the actual motive behind the attack and his association with enemy country and terrorist organisations'.

According to Delhi police, Kumawat has been arrested on charges of destruction of evidence and criminal conspiracy.

He was also a member of the now-deleted Bhagat Singh Fan Club page created by the accused, they said.

It is suspected that Kumawat, a resident of Kuchaman city, helped Jha stay in Nagaur where he fled after the Wednesday incident.

Kumawat had come on his own to a police station along with Lalit Jha on Thursday night and both were handed over to the Special Cell. He was being questioned since then, the police said.

The police will soon take Jha to Nagaur. He will be taken to the place where he claimed to have destroyed his and others' mobile phones, another official said.

"Like the other accused, Kumawat talked about revolutionary ideas," another official said adding he used to motivate other youths to join their group.

His Instagram account suggested that he was 'highly inspired by Bhagat Singh and Chhatrapati Shivaji. On his profile, he wrote slogans like 'inkalab zindabaad', and 'agar desh mein kranti lani hai to khud krantikaari hona chahiye''.

In one of the posts, he wrote, 'Jab sarkaar galat ho, aapka sahi hona khatarnaak ho sakta hai', according to sources.

Meanwhile, police officials said the five accused arrested earlier have revealed that they explored self-immolation and distribution of pamphlets before settling on the plan to jump into the Lok Sabha chamber with smoke canisters.

Two men -- Sagar Sharma and Manoranjan D -- had jumped into the Lok Sabha's chamber from the public gallery during Zero Hour, released yellow smoke from canisters and shouted slogans, before being overpowered by the MPs.

Around the same time, two others - Amol Shinde and Neelam Devi -- released coloured smoke from canisters while shouting 'tanashahi nahi chalegi' outside the Parliament premises.

Lalit Jha, the fifth accused, allegedly circulated videos of the protest outside the complex on social media.

During questioning, Manoranjan said he was involved in social work. An official said Manoranjan, an engineering dropout, had visited Cambodia and Bangkok in 2014 for 'volunteer work'. He was unemployed and would take money from his parents for his personal expenditure and travel.

"The police are trying to ascertain the trail of money provided to him for his travel. It was found that he had come to Delhi from Bengaluru on a flight. He had told his parents that he was going to Bengaluru but came to Delhi," a source said.

Jha's parents who live in their dilapidated ancestral house in Bihar are shocked at the events.

"I came to know about my son's arrest through other people. As you all can see, we do not even own a TV set", Devanand Jha, a priest, told journalists at his house in Rampur Uday, a nondescript village in Darbhanga district.

His wife Manjula sobbed as she said, "My child is not a rogue. He cannot indulge in wrongdoings. He has always loved to help people. He has donated his blood three times".

It has been a week since the couple last saw their 32-year-old son, who handed himself over to the Delhi police on Thursday, two days after the security breach took place on the anniversary of the 2001 terror attack at the old Parliament building.

Late on Friday, the investigators took the accused to various places where they had met.

"Before finalising this plan (to jump into the Lok Sabha chamber), they (accused) had explored certain ways that could be impactful in sending their message to the government," a Delhi Police official aware of the investigations told PTI.

They first explored immolating themselves by covering their bodies with fireproof gel but dropped this idea.

They also considered distributing pamphlets inside the Parliament but finally went ahead with the plan they executed on Wednesday, the official said.

The police are likely to seek Parliament's permission to recreate the breach that occurred on the anniversary of the 2001 attacks.