Parliament Security Breach Accused told Delhi court that they were given electric shocks, forced to give their biometrics, provide email, social media, phone passwords, tortured to sign 70-odd blank papers, and link themselves to political parties.
A Delhi Court has been informed during the recent hearing that the accused of the December case over parliament’s security breach, were tortured and coerced into falsely linking themselves to opposition political parties while in judicial custody.
The five unemployed youngsters arrested in the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, (UAPA) case were allegedly tortured, given electric shocks and forced to sign various blank papers to confess the alleged crime and their association with certain political parties. The claim was made in the application filed before Additional Sessions Judge Hardeep Kaur of the Patiala House Court on Wednesday.
The application moved in the court by five of the six accused, claimed that during polygraph, narco and brain mapping tests, those conducting the tests pressured them — Manoranjan D, Sagar Sharma, Lalit Jha, Amol Shinde, and Mahesh Kumawat — to name a political party or leader as the mastermind behind the case, legal news website Bar and Bench reported.
They were forced to provide the passwords for their social media accounts, emails and mobile phones, as reported by Live Law. Furthermore, the Bar and Bench reported, “They also stated that they were questioned about their current and old mobile phone numbers, and were taken to telecom provider offices for issuance of SIM cards for both their old and new phone numbers.”
All the six accused, including Neelam Azad, were produced before Judge Kaur on Wednesday, wherein their judicial custody was extended to March 1, and the hearing for the aforementioned application of the five accused was scheduled for February 17, according to reports.
In response to the application, Judge Kaur has summoned a response from the Special Cell of Delhi Police regarding the allegations made.
On December 13, 2023, Sharma and Manoranjan D. breached parliament’s security and threw smoke canisters in the Lok Sabha, while Azad and Shinde shouted slogans in protest outside parliament against the alleged authoritarianism of the Union government. Azad, Sharma, Manoranjan and Shinde were first arrested followed by Jha and Kumawat.
They were allegedly part of a social media group called ‘Bhagat Singh Fan Club’ and wanted to emulate the freedom fighter’s symbolic bombing of the Central Legislative Assembly in protest against the failure of the political class to discuss pertinent issues like unemployment, inflation and farmers’ distress in parliament.
