Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Mysuru, Pratap Simha, under fire for providing visitor passes to the intruders who breached Parliament security and barged into the Lok Sabha chamber on Wednesday, met Speaker Om Birla yesterday and offered an explanation.

On Wednesday, Simha briefed Om Birla and said that the father of one of the accused, Sagar Sharma, who resides in his constituency, approached him for a visitor’s pass, sources told ANI.

The father reportedly told the Mysuru MP that his son wanted to visit the new Parliament building. Simha further told the Speaker that his father was constantly in touch with his personal assistant and his office. He has no additional information beyond what he has already disclosed, Pratap Simha has clarified, according to the sources.

Sagar Sharma and Manoranjan D jumped from the public gallery into the Lok Sabha chamber on Wednesday. They leaped on the desks and opened yellow gas canisters, which they reportedly smuggled into the Parliament building hiding in their shoes. While those two were causing a chaos inside the Lok Sabha, two other protesters were caught releasing coloured smoke outside the Parliament.

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The two inside the Chamber were caught and thrashed by some of the Parliamentarians before they could reach the Speaker’s chair. During their their, a visitor’s pass was recovered from Sagar Sharma, which was signed off by Pratap Simha’s office.

Opposition MPs have trained their guns on Simha and are claiming that a thorough security check wasn’t done by the Mysuru MP before issuing the pass.

Congress workers held a protest outside his office in Mysuru. The grand-old party also took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and posted a picture of him and Pratap Simha on its official X account saying, “Infiltration in Parliament on the pass of BJP MP Pratap Simha”.

BJP सांसद प्रताप सिम्हा के PASS पर संसद में घुसपैठ pic.twitter.com/9BFfGFvTOX

— Congress (@INCIndia) December 13, 2023

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Five of the six accused were arrested by the Delhi Police and have been charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), while a hunt is underway to nab the six accused.

(With inputs from ANI)