Story of House No.67: Why the Parliament attack accused stayed in the house full of secrets

In the evening of December 13 when the investigations of the Parliament security breach were going on in Delhi, all of a sudden, two vehicles of the Delhi Police Special Cell landed at the narrow lanes of Sector 7, Housing Board Colony, in Gurugram, Haryana. Their target was to raid House Number 67 and enquire about its owners Vishal Sharma and his wife Rakhi Sharma.

House No.67 is a property built on a little less than 150 square yards. This is the house where the five accused of the Parliament security breach – Neelam Devi, Sagar Sharma, Manoranjan D, Amol Shinde and Lalit Jha were staying a night before they carried out the attack.

Vishal Sharma and Rakhi Sharma were detained and subsequently released. Sagar knew Vishal, as they were employees in a garment factory in Daulatabad, Gurugram. Even though Sagar left the company, he was a regular visitor to House No.67.

Sagar along with Neelam, Manoranjan and Amol Shinde arrived at Vishal’s house and were allowed to stay there in good faith. With several layers being unravelled in the case, there are questions about the house.

Was House No.67 chosen because Sagar was friends with Vishal, or is there more to this house of secrets?

Speaking to Republic, one of the law enforcement officials who knows about the investigation mentioned that there is every possibility that House No.67 was chosen as Sagar, Manoranjan and Neelam wanted to make their identities less known by checking in either at a hotel or guest house.

In the locality where House No.67 is situated, there are houses where  retired government servants, retired professors and businessmen stay. In this, the 46-year-old Vishal Sharma was somewhat of a misfit. Even though everyone in the locality knows about Vishal Sharma, not many preferred to be social with him. The reason was his drunkard behaviour and also constant fights at home.

The father of a 16-year-old studying in Class X, Vishal had left his job in the garment export factory and was unemployed. Being an adopted son, he was getting some amount of financial assistance from his parents who were settled abroad. 

For a person who was relatively boycotted in society, his staying at home for sometime did prove useful for Sagar and his accomplices. It is important to note that the night before the Parliament attack, Sagar and Vishal had gone for a walk together to the nearby market.

While all the accused have been active on social media, Vishal ironically is not present on social media. He is also believed to be not in possession of a mobilephone and is often found using the phone of his wife Rakhi and his 16-year-old daughter.

According to the person who knows Vishal, his non-possession of a phone and being not active on social media actually helped him, as law enforcement officials could not point out his involvement in the activities and movement to breach Parliament security.

Sagar and Manoranjan spent the night in the same room of House No.67 before they carried out the Parliament breach the next day. They left two luggage items at the house of Vishal Sharma, telling him that they will be back in a few hours. In the luggage, subsequently checked by law enforcement officials, mostly posters and books of revolutionary Bhagat Singh were found.

As per law enforcement official privy to the investigation, the posters in the luggage was also a way to show how their act was inspired by the acts of freedom fighters Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru.