Parliament security breach: Mastermind Lalit Jha’s police custody extended till Jan 5

December 22, 2023

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Friday extended till January 5 the police custody of Lalit Jha, the alleged mastermind in the Parliament security breach case. On Thursday, the same court of Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Hardeep Kaur also extended the police custody of four other accused persons arrested in connection with the case till January 5.

The accused individuals — Sagar Sharma, Manoranjan D., Neelam Azad and Amol Shinde — were presented before the ASJ of Patiala House Courts. All four were arrested from the Parliament premises.

Five persons were directly involved in the planning and execution of the security breach in the Lok Sabha on December 13, the 22nd anniversary of the 2001 Parliament terror attack. After being on the run following the incident on December 13, Jha, a native of Bihar, had surrendered before the Kartavya Path police station in New Delhi district the next night. The court extended his custody on an application moved by the police.

On Thursday, the Delhi Police had told the court that the accused in the case were “hardened criminals”, consistently altering their statements

“He is a mastermind. We need his custody to unearth the whole conspiracy and the main motive behind the incident. We need to travel and take him to different cities and places. We need his custody to recover the mobile devices also,” Delhi Police had earlier told the court.