Months Before Parliament Breach, Accused On Recce Found Key Security Lapse

The shocking scenes in Lok Sabha yesterday has put under the spotlight lapses in parliament's security

Months before he jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber with a smoke colour canister in hand, Manoranjan D from Mysuru found a key gap in parliament's security apparatus that he and his associate, Sagar Sharma, exploited to create chaos in the House yesterday.

According to police sources, Manoranjan has revealed during questioning that he attended proceedings during Budget session in the old parliament building. This was a recce visit to understand the security checks in place. During this visit, he found that while visitors to parliament are frisked multiple times, their shoes are not checked.

Yesterday, Manoranjan D and Sagar Sharma hid colour smoke canisters inside their shoes. They then proceed to the visitors' gallery with passes issued by the office of BJP MP Pratap Simha. They passed the security checks without being detected. Later, they jumped from the visitors' gallery into the chamber and deploying the colour smoke before being overpowered.