They Called Themselves 'Deshbhakts' But Breached Security of 'Temple of Democracy' | Instagram Story

Social media platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp were used to recruit all the accused involved in the December 13 Parliament security breach incident. All the accused, including ‘mastermind Lalit Jha, were part of a WhatsApp group called ‘Bhagat Singh Fan Club’, which was used to plot the Parliament security breach.

News18 has learnt that Jha, and one other accused in the case–Mahesh Kumawat– joined the WhatsApp group through an Instagram account by the name ‘Deshbhakt88’.

All About ‘Deshbhakt88’

As per reports, the handler of the ‘Deshbhakt88’ account used an action call post with Bhagat Singh’s images to recruit people and made a WhatsApp group of individuals who showed interest there.

The history of the account indicates that the profile was activated in October 2021, indicating that the Parliament security breach was being planned for the past two years. The account has a total of 113 posts, with the one done on October 18 this year.

In several posts, the account handler called for people who can “get out of their homes to protect the country and democracy and those who are ready to die” to write their names and names of the states they hailed from in the comment section.

“We oppose both BJP and Congress,” said one of the posts.

The security breach mastermind Lalit Jha and other accused Mahesh Kumawat commented on one of the posts, suggesting that they joined a WhatsApp group ‘Bhagat Singh Fan Club’ through there.

While Mahesh commented on the action call post, Lalit shared his contact number too.

Special Cell of the Delhi Police is reportedly probing to unearth the owner/creator of the Instagram page.

In the chat box of one of the posts, Lalit Jha introduced himself and wrote, ‘I am from West Bengal.’ The person running the page, replied by commenting, ‘Come on WhatsApp.’ Mahesh also commented on the action call post.

The Case

So far, six individuals have been arrested in the case, while two others are detained.

While Lalit Jha was arrested after he surrendered to the police, Sagar Sharma and Manoranjan D were arrested from inside the Lok Sabha chamber, and Neelam Devi and Amol Shinde were detained outside the Parliament complex. Police also detained Kailash and Mahesh Kumawat. Mahesh was later arrested.

As per the latest information, the five arrested accused have told police that they explored self-immolation and distribution of pamphlets before settling on the plan to jump into the Lok Sabha’s chamber with smoke canisters.

“Before finalising this plan (to jump into the Lok Sabha chamber), they (accused) had explored certain ways that could be impactful in sending their message to the government,” a Delhi Police official aware of the investigations told PTI.

They first explored immolating themselves by covering their bodies with fireproof gel but dropped this idea. They also considered distributing pamphlets inside the Parliament but finally went ahead with the plan they executed on Wednesday, the official said.