New Delhi: Sarabjit Singh, the 37-year-old man from Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh who drove an SUV through a boom barrier at the Delhi Assembly complex and left after leaving a bouquet and a garland in the portico of the Speaker’s office on Monday, had planned to proceed to Parliament afterward, police sources said.
Harish and Mahesh, the two taxi drivers who were with Sarabjit in his vehicle when it was intercepted in Roop Nagar, are learnt to have told police interrogators that he had given them some money and told them to help him find the route to Parliament in Central Delhi.
Before they could proceed, however, the vehicle was stopped at a police picket and the men were arrested.
The two taxi drivers did not prima facie appear to have had a role in the operation, but they were still being examined, the sources said.
Sarabjit spent a sleepless night in police lockup on Monday, frequently screaming to himself, the sources said. The investigation so far has revealed that he was undergoing treatment for depression in a hospital in UP’s Shahjahanpur, they said.
He was produced in court on Tuesday afternoon, and remanded in police custody for eight days.
Police have opened a separate investigation into the extraordinary breach of security in the Assembly complex on Monday, which allowed Sarabjit to enter the premises, get off his SUV, and spend around six minutes close to the official vehicle of the Speaker before driving out.
The responsibility for securing the Delhi Assembly lies jointly with the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Delhi Police. CRPF personnel are deployed at all five gates of the complex, including Gate No. 2, through which Sarabjit entered.
Senior police officers including Joint Commissioner of Police Madhur Verma and DCP North Raja Banthia visited the Assembly on Tuesday.
