Speaker Om Birla said the Delhi Police has been asked to join the inquiry.
New Delhi:
Getting over their shock at the Lok Sabha being breached by two smoke-canister-wielding men, not only did the MPs gather the courage to overpower the intruders but also thrashed one of them before handing him over to the security personnel.
Around 1 pm on Wednesday, Manoranjan D and Sagar Sharma jumped from the visitors’ gallery into the chamber of the Lok Sabha. A video showed Sagar jumping over desks and heading towards the Speaker’s chair, while Manoranjan sprayed yellow smoke from one of the canisters. Sagar also had a canister hidden in his shoe and reportedly used that before he was overpowered.
A video shot inside the Lok Sabha chamber shows a group of MPs catching hold of Sharma and at least four of them can then be seen raining blows on him. One of the MPs also holds Sharma by the hair and pulls him while the others continue to hit him. The video shows yellow smoke swirling around the MPs as they attack the intruder.
Several MPs, including Karti Chidambaram of the Congress, have called for a high-level inquiry into the breach, which came 22 years after the Parliament terror attack in which nine people, including eight security personnel, were killed.
“We are investigating the matter and have asked Delhi Police to join the inquiry,” Speaker Om Birla said after proceedings resumed in the Lok Sabha around 2 pm.
The opposition also demanded a statement by Home Minister Amit Shah on the breach, and MPs from the INDIA bloc also walked out of the Rajya Sabha.
“INDIA parties walked out of the Rajya Sabha this afternoon on the issue of the extraordinary events in the Lok Sabha today and the refusal of the Home Minister to make a statement on the matter, especially after such a huge breach of security on the very same day Parliament was attacked 22 years ago,” Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh posted on X.
INDIA parties walked out of the Rajya Sabha this afternoon on the issue of the extraordinary events in the Lok Sabha today and the refusal of the Home Minister to make a statement on the matter, especially after such a huge breach of security on the very same day Parliament was…
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) December 13, 2023
Apart from the two intruders in the Lok Sabha, a man and a woman, identified as Amol Shinde and Neelam Devi, were also detained outside Parliament with canisters filled with coloured smoke.
