Police seek extension in Parl breech probe

New Delhi: The Delhi Police requested additional time from court on Thursday for the Parliament security breach case investigation, citing pending reports and the need to analyze voluminous digital data collected. The city police requested Additional Sessions Judge Hardeep Kaur to grant three more months to them for concluding the investigation.

The judge issued notice to the jailed accused Neelam Azad, Manoranjan D, Sagar Sharma, Lalit Jha, Amol Shinde and Mahesh Kumawat on the application and sought their replies by March 11.

In a major security breach on the anniversary of the 2001 Parliament terror attack, two persons -- Sharma and Manoranjan D -- jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber from the public gallery during Zero Hour on December 13 last year, released a yellow gas from canisters and shouted slogans, before being overpowered by MPs.

Around the same time, two other accused -- Shinde and Azad -- also sprayed coloured gas from canisters while shouting “tanashahi nahi chalegi” (dictatorship will not work) outside Parliament premises.

Without the court’s permission, the probe agency would have had three months from the day of the arrest to complete the probe.

Failure to do so grants accused in custody a statutory right to bail, as per law.