Lalit Jha, the alleged mastermind of the security breach in parliament that shocked the nation, has surrendered. Sources said he had gone to the police station on Kartavya Path (the boulevard renamed ‘Path of Duty’ in the heart of Delhi) and surrendered. He has been formally arrested and the New Delhi District Police has handed him over to the Special Cell.

The Kolkata-based teacher was arrested from Delhi after being on the run for nearly two days.

Sources said the man claimed that he had gone by bus to Rajasthan’s Nagaur via Neemrana — where he he was seen last — and stayed at a hotel with two friends. Later, when he realised that the police were looking for him, he came back. At the police station today, he was accompanied by one Mahesh, sources said.

Four persons were arrested for yesterday afternoon’s security breach in which two men — Sagar and Manoranjan — smuggled in smoke bombs and let them during the Lok Sbaha proceedings. Two others, Neelam Devi and Amol Shinde, who have been unable to get a pass, held a protest outside the parliament building, shouting slogans and waving smoke canisters, before they were caught.

Lalit Jha, who also did not get a visitors’ pass, recorded it on his cellphone and uploaded it on social media. He also passed on a copy to a Kolkata-based associate who runs a non-profit, investigators said.

The motive of the unprecedented “smoke protest”, investigators said, was to highlight the growing unemployment, plight of farmers, and the situation in Manipur. The group wanted a discussion on these matters in parliament and thought it would be a flashy way to draw attention. The group were part of a Facebook page called “Fans of Bhagat Singh”.

Investigators also said off the record that there appeared to be no organised terror group behind the plot.

In the court, though, the Delhi Police earlier said the matter needs further investigation while seeking two week’s custody of the four people arrested. The accused have been charged under the anti-terror law UAPA and sections of the Indian Penal Code.

The police contended that the whole operation resembled a terror attack and questioned the motive.

“Was the purpose of the incident only to express one’s point or to carry out some major incident? It has to be investigated whether any terrorist organisation is involved in this entire issue,” they told the court.

The court has allowed them a week’s time.

Chief Justice DY Chandrachud has asked for a report after an open letter – purportedly by a woman judge in Uttar Pradesh alleging sexual harassment by a senior and requesting permission to kill herself – went viral on social media.

“Kindly permit me to end my life in a dignified way. Let my life be – DISMISSED,” the woman judge from Banda wrote in the letter addressed to the Chief Justice, alleging sex harassment by a district judge and his associates during a stint in Barabanki.

“I have been sexually harassed to the very limit. I have been treated like utter garbage. I feel like an unwanted insect,” she said in the widely-circulated letter.

On the instructions of Chief Justice Chandrachud, the Supreme Court Secretary General Atul M Kurhekar wrote to the registrar general of the Allahabad High Court asking for a report by this morning on the status of all the complaints by the woman judge.

The Secretary General was informed on the phone last night that the acting Chief Justice of the High Court had also taken note of the open letter.

The woman judge said in her letter that a probe was ordered into her allegations after she filed a complaint with the Internal Complaints Committee of the High Court in July 2023, but the inquiry is “a farce and a sham”.

“The witnesses in the enquiry are immediate Subordinates of the District Judge. How the Committee expects the Witnesses to depose against their Boss is beyond my understanding,” she wrote.

She said that she had requested the transfer of the judge pending the inquiry to ensure fair investigation, but her petition was dismissed by the Supreme Court in “just eight seconds.”

“All I requested was that the District Judge be transferred during the pendency of the inquiry. The bare minimum prayer was not heeded to,” the letter said.

“I have no will to live anymore. I have been rendered to a Walking Corpse in the last year and a half. There is no purpose in carrying this soulless and lifeless body around anymore. There is no purpose left in my life,” the two-page letter said.

Lalit Jha – the alleged mastermind behind the Parliament security breach – burned the mobile phones of four accomplices in a bid to destroy evidence, Delhi Police sources told NDTV Friday. Jha, who surrendered to the cops last night, said he had kept the mobile phones of the two men who popped yellow smoke canisters inside the Lok Sabha, and the man and woman did so outside Parliament.

Jha told police he filmed the latter incident, uploaded the clip to Instagram, and sent it to a Kolkata-based NGO to ensure media coverage, before fleeing the scene. On the run for 48 hours, he claimed to have travelled to Nagaur in Rajasthan to stay with two friends. Lalit Jha and another man, Mahesh, returned to Delhi Thursday evening, after which Jha gave himself up at a police station in central Delhi.

A teacher from Kolkata, Lalit Jha has been arrested and handed over to the Special Cell of Delhi Police, which is leading the investigation. His claim of having burned the phones is being verified.

READ | Mastermind Of Parliament Security Breach, A Kolkata Teacher, Surrenders

Police sources told NDTV Mahesh, the man who came with Jha from Rajasthan, was to join the rest in staging the smoke scare outside Parliament on December 13 – a significant date as it was the 22nd anniversary of a terror attack on the old Parliament building, in which nine people were killed.

Source said Mahesh, who had “full knowledge” of the conspiracy, is being tracked down.

Last evening the four who opened the smoke cans – Sagar Sharma and D Manoranjan inside Parliament, and Neelam Devi and Amol Shinde outside – were sent to police custody for a week.

READ | 4 Accused In Parliament Security Breach Sent To Police Custody For 7 Days

Delhi Police told the court the four, who hid the canisters in their shoes to escape what was supposed to be multiple levels of security, also had pamphlets they wanted to show Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The PM, though, was not in the House on Wednesday. The four told the police they wanted to bring issues like unemployment and the ethnic violence in Manipur to MPs’ attention.

The shoes were reportedly custom made for Sagar Sharma in Lucknow, his home town. The police told the court they intend to take him to Lucknow to identify the shop that made the shoes.

The smoke cans stuffed into the shoes were bought from Mumbai, the police said.

READ | “‘Missing PM’ Pamphlets, Lucknow Shoes”: Delhi Police To Court On Parliament Intruders

Meanwhile, police sources have told NDTV the smoke canisters used had ‘Made in China’ labels on them, and that they had labels warning against use in crowded or indoor areas. While not poisonous, the smoke may have harmed the health of the MPs and others, sources said.

The cops had also claimed a “terrorist” angle to what they declared was a big conspiracy.

However, irrespective of that line of investigation, the security breach has prompted a furious political row with the opposition demanding either the PM or Home Minister Amit Shah explain how it happened.

The ruling BJP and the opposition have traded barbs – each claiming links to the arrested individuals.

Amid protests in Parliament all day Thursday, 14 opposition lawmakers – all but one from the Lok Sabha – were suspended for this session, which is the last full sitting before next year’s election.

READ | “Does BJP Understand Democracy?” DMK’s Kanimozhi After 14 MPs Suspended

The opposition had also demanded a BJP MP – Prathap Simha, whose office had issued letters requesting visitors’ passes for two of the intruders – be investigated.

READ | BJP MP Prathap Simha On Row Over Passes To Breach Accused

Mr Simha denied any knowledge of what was to come when his office wrote the letter, and pointed out passes were issued by the Lok Sabha Secretariat, the final authority on security inside the Parliament.

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