New Delhi: The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) case against five unemployed youth who breached parliament’s security and threw yellow smoke canisters inside the Lok Sabha in December took a shocking turn when the under-trials said in court that they were given electric shocks and tortured in judicial custody to falsely link themselves to opposition political parties.The accused claimed that they were pressured by those conducting polygraph, drug and brain-mapping tests on them to implicate a political party or an opposition leader as the brain behind the entire episode, legal news website Bar and Bench reported. Moreover, they also claimed they were forced to sign in 70 blank pages and confess to crimes under the UAPA.Five of the six accused – Manoranjan D., Sagar Sharma, Lalit Jha, Amol Shinde and Mahesh Kumawat – had moved the court of an additional sessions judge in Delhi. Their application to the court further said that they were forced to provide the passwords for their social media accounts, emails and mobile phones, LiveLaw 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,” reported Bar and Bench.All the six accused, including Neelam Azad, were produced before Judge Hardeep Kaur on Wednesday. The Judge extended their judicial custody until March 1, while scheduling the hearing for the application of the five accused on February 17, according to reports. Judge Kaur also directed the Delhi police to submit its response to the allegations made in the application.The only woman accused, Azad was denied bail on January 18 on the grounds that the charges against her were serious and the probe was still at a preliminary stage.Sharma and Manoranjan D. had breached parliament’s security on December 13, 2023 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. They were alleged to have been a 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.Azad, Sharma, Manoranjan and Shinde were first arrested by the Delhi police on December 13. Jha and Kumawat were subsequently arrested.
