Five of the six accused in the December 2023 Parliamentary security breach have told the Patiala High Court that they were tortured, electrocuted and forced to give false confessions by the Delhi police. The allegations were made by Manoranjan D, Sagar Sharma, Lalit Jha, Amol Shinde and Mahesh Kumawat to the Patiala Court on January 31. According to Bar & Bench, the accused have told the court that they were coerced into signing 70 blank pages in order to implicate various political parties.
On December 13, the anniversary of the 2001 Parliament attack, two of the accused breached the visitors gallery inside Lok Sabha and set off smoke canisters. They also attempted to run towards the speaker before they were overpowered by several MPs. Two of the other accused- a man and accused set off similar colour canisters at Vijay Chowk near Parliament. They had all raised slogans saying, “Bharat Mata ki Jai, Tanashahi bandh karo (stop the dictatorship), Tanashahi nahi chalegi (dictatorship won’t work), Jai Bheem Jai Bharat, Save Constitution”. All six of them were arrested and charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, UAPA.
According to Live Law, the five accused have also told the Patiala court that they were made to hand over the login information for their phones, email IDs and social media accounts. The Hindu reports that the accused have said in court that during the narco/polygraph test, they were pressured to blame a particular political party. Only five out of the six accused have taken polygraph tests. The lone woman accused, Neelam Azad has refused to undergo the test.
The Patiala High Court has listed the next hearing of the accused’s application to February 17 and have extended their judicial custody to March 1.
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