6 people behind Lok Sabha security breach, knew each other, carried out recce: Police

At least six people are involved in the breach of security in the Lok Sabha earlier on Wednesday. They knew each other and were staying at a house in Gurugram, sources in the Delhi Police told PTI. They had known each other for four years, hatched the plan few days ago and also carried out a recce.

Sagar Sharma and Manoranjan D, who were in the visitors' gallery of the Lok Sabha, suddenly jumped into the gallery where the members are seated, during the Zero Hour. They chanted slogans and fired a canister that emitted a yellow gas.

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Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant said the gas was yellowish and there was some burning sensation. The intruders were overpowered by the MPs who handed them over to the security personnel.

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Amol Shinde and Neelam were caught outside the Parliament while chanting slogans. All four were arrested by the Delhi Police. Two more, identified as Lalit and Vikram, and suspected to be their accomplices, are being looked for.

The Delhi Police also visited the house where the accused were staying prior to the security breach.

"While four have been held, the fifth has been identified. The two suspects and the four accused stayed in a house in Gurugram and it seems that the incident was planned. No mobile phones have been found on the accused and police are looking for their phones," a police official said.

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In another development, the parliament secretariat has written to the home secretary asking for a security review and a high-level inquiry into the security breach.

At an all-party meeting convened by Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla after the breach, some leaders pointed at shortcomings in the security protocol, driven in part by the shortage of parliamentary staff assigned to enforce it.

The security breach took place on the day India marked 22 years of the terror attacks on Parliament in 2001. On this day, five terrorists belonging to Pakistan's Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad had attacked the parliament house.