Cops: Accused planned self-immolation drama

Accused sent to seven-day police custody

A Delhi court on Saturday sent Mahesh Kumawat, the sixth accused arrested in the ongoing probe in the Parliament security breach case, to police remand for seven days for custodial interrogation.

The Delhi police’s special cell, which is investigating the case, plans to record the statement of BJP MP Pratap Simha, who had authorised the visitor passes for the accused.

In another revelation in the case, sources in the probe agencies said that the accused had also explored the option of self-immolation and distribution of pamphlets before settling on the plan to jump into the Lok Sabha’s chamber with smoke canisters.

The agencies are exploring the possibility of foreign funding or links with Maoists and also any handlers from the hostile neighbours, if any, as one of the accused, Manoranjan, had visited Cambodia and Bangkok in 2014 for “volunteer work”. Police said that Manoranjan is unemployed and takes money from his parents for his personal expenditure and travel. “The police is 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.

Mahesh (32) a native of Rajasthan’s Nagaur was allegedly in contact with the other accused for the last two years for hatching the conspiracy.

He was arrested on charges of destruction of evidence and criminal conspiracy.

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.

The police will also take Lalit Jha, main accused to the place where he destroyed his and others’ phones, adding that Lalit in a post on social media wrote “What India needs a bomb”, followed by a message in Bangla claiming that India requires a bomb today to “raise a strong voice against tyranny, injustice and anarchy”.