NEW DELHI, 10 August 2003 — Indian security officials were unable to explain yesterday how a look-alike of Shipping Minister Shatrughan Sinha managed to gain unfettered access into the heavily guarded Parliament complex.
The deputy speaker of the lower house, P.M. Sayeed, called a meeting of security officials to investigate how Balbir Singh Rajput, a transport company owner, managed to fool the guards.
The Hindi news network Aaj Tak showed Rajput walking nonchalantly into the tightly guarded Parliament on Friday talking on his mobile phone, without any guard frisking him. Rajput was also shown shaking hands with security guards and being photographed by the media just outside the main entrance to the lower house.
“I walked around the place without anyone suspecting anything,” he told Aaj Tak afterward
“I could have had a bomb, which I could have planted and no one would have known. This is a shameful lapse in security,” said Rajput, who was dressed exactly like Sinha with a pair of sunglasses.
Rajput also managed to get past guards by imitating the voice of Sinha, a popular Hindi film actor who belongs to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s Bharatiya Janata Party.
Later Rajput was picked up by police for questioning on his motive for illegally entering Parliament. Three security men were suspended and an official inquiry was ordered into the incident.
Reports said Rajput was put up to the stunt by Aaj Tak after earlier making his way into Parliament’s high-security Central Hall by accident. After Rajput stumbled into the Central Hall that time, Parliament staff reportedly asked him to take Sinha’s place in the lower house.
Just as security officials were studying Rajput’s breach, guards were thrown into frantic action yesterday when an anonymous caller said a bomb had been planted in Parliament. A bomb disposal squad, sniffer dogs and fire trucks were rushed to the complex, police said.
The incident happened four days after an 11-year-old made a hoax call to police about a bomb threat to Parliament. Police said the boy was inspired by action movies.
The Indian Parliament and the buildings near it — the prime minister’s office and home, finance, defense and foreign affairs ministries — were designated a high-security zone in December 2001.
The move followed an attack on the Parliament complex by militants on Dec. 13, which left 15 people dead, and sent tensions with Pakistan soaring after New Delhi blamed its neighbor for the raid.
