Parliament breach: Delhi LG grants sanction to prosecute 6 accused under UAPA

New Delhi: Delhi Lt Governor VK Saxena has accorded sanction to prosecute six persons under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for their alleged involvement in the Parliament security breach incident, Raj Niwas officials said on Thursday.

In a major security breach on the anniversary of the 2001 Parliament attack, two persons had jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber from the public gallery and opened canisters that emitted a yellow-coloured smoke, triggering panic among the MPs on December 13 last year.

Six persons — Manoranjan D, Sagar Sharma, Amol Dhanraj Shinde, Neelam Ranolia, Lalit Jha and Mahesh Kumawat — have been arrested in the case.

The Delhi Police had requested their prosecution under section 16 and 18 of the UAPA from the LG, who, having found sufficient material on record, granted prosecution sanction, the officials said.

“While the Delhi Police had requested for necessary prosecution sanction under UAPA, the Review Committee (Directorate of Prosecution, Tis Hazari, Delhi) on May 30 this year had also gone through the entire evidence collected by the investigating agency and found the involvement of the accused in the case.

“Accordingly, the Review Committee noted that prima facie a case was made out against the accused under UAPA,” a Raj Niwas official said.

The Delhi Police had registered a case at Parliament Street police station on the complaint made by a security officer in the Lok Sabha.

The investigation of the case was later on transferred from the Parliament Street police station to the Counter Intelligence Unit of Special Cell, New Delhi. During the investigation, the six accused were arrested, and at present all of them are in judicial custody.