Need to Access Accounts of Parl Attack Accused, Cops Tell Facebook Parent; Google Pay Approached Too

Delhi Police has reportedly written to Meta to access social media accounts of the six accused arrested in the Parliament security breach case and details of the now-deleted Facebook page ‘Bhagat Singh Fan Club‘, where they met each other.

Police have collected bank account details of all the accused to see if they received money from someone for executing the December 13 incident, news agency PTI quoted its sources as saying on Monday.

According to police sources, officers have also approached Google Pay and Paytm to know if there were any digital transactions on the bank accounts of the accused.

Various Delhi Police teams approached family members of the accused on Sunday and collected details of their bank accounts. Bank passbooks of accused Neelam Devi and Sagar Sharma were seized from their residences in Haryana’s Jind and Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow, respectively, sources were quoted.

A total of six accused have been arrested so far in the case. Apart from Sagar and Neelam, other accused are Manoranjan D, Amol Shinde, Lalit Jha and Mahesh Kumawat. They have been booked under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Meanwhile, a team of Special Cell visited Manoranjan’s residence in Mysuru on Monday and recorded the statements of his parents and relatives. The family was asked about his bank details and foreign visits, sources said, adding the team remained at his residence for at least seven hours.

Sources said a team of Delhi Police managed to identify the shoe shop in Lucknow’s Alam Bagh from where Sagar had bought two pairs of shoes, for Rs 600 each, in which he hid the smoke canisters. The shop is just a kilometre from his house in Lucknow, said a source.

The team is looking for the cobbler who helped Sagar in making the cavities in his shoes, sources said, adding Sagar’s other family members and friends in Lucknow were also questioned by the police team.

Delhi Police Counter Intelligence unit has written to Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, to access social media accounts of the accused persons and sought details of Facebook page ’Bhagat Singh Fan Page’ like the number of members, etc. The page was created by the accused and later deleted.

Meta has also been requested to share WhatsApp chats of the accused as their mobile phones have been damaged, sources said.

Police have planned to check the e-mail accounts attached with WhatsApp numbers of the accused to get chat backup to know with who else they were in contact just before their alleged involvement in the case, they added.

According to police, Lalit Jha, the “mastermind” of the Parliament security breach conspiracy, threw his mobile phone and burnt those of other accused in Rajasthan’s Nagaur, where he fled after the incident. Police later recovered fragments of broken and burnt mobile phones at Lalit’s instance.

These parts have been sent to the forensic department to see if data can be recovered from them.

Sagar and Manoranjan had jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber from the public gallery during Zero Hour on December 13, released yellow smoke from canisters and shouted slogans before being overpowered by MPs.

Around the same time, Amol and Neelam released coloured smoke from canisters outside the Parliament premises and raised slogans.

Lalit, who was present outside the Parliament gate, had recorded the act on his mobile phone. He fled to Nagaur after uploading the video on social media and sharing it with his friends. Mahesh and another accused Kailash, who are cousins, allegedly arranged his stay there.

Later, Lalit and Mahesh came to Delhi and surrendered before police. The accused told police that they were influenced by the ideology of revolutionary Bhagat Singh and wanted to send a message to the government through their act.

(With inputs from PTI)