A 20-year-old man identified as Rama from Uttar Pradesh scaled a 20-metre-high boundary wall of the new Parliament building on August 22, climbed over from the Rail Bhavan side, and managed to reach close to the Garuda Gate, one of the most sensitive access points.
The breach occurred around 6:30 am, barely 24 hours after the turbulent monsoon session of Parliament concluded.
The intruder was intercepted by alert CISF and Delhi Police personnel and is now under interrogation. Preliminary police statements suggest that Rama appeared “mentally incoherent,” but the sheer audacity of his act breaching multiple layers of security by climbing a tree and leaping over a wall taller than a six-storey building has sparked alarm across security and political circles.
Delhi Police issued a formal statement, “Today, one person was promptly apprehended by alert CISF and Delhi Police staff from near the boundary wall of Parliament, while probably attempting to scale inside. He is identified as Rama (20) of Uttar Pradesh. He seems mentally incoherent. Further interrogation and verification are underway.”
While officials are attempting to dismiss the incident as the act of an unstable individual, security experts warn that such intrusions, irrespective of the perpetrator’s state of mind, reveal dangerous vulnerabilities in India’s parliamentary security architecture.
The Parliament complex is one of the most impenetrable zones in the country, secured by the Delhi Police, CRPF, CISF, and Special Protection Group layers. Yet the incident suggests laxity, complacency, or gaps in coordination.
This is not an isolated lapse but part of a disturbing pattern that has emerged in the past two years:
Last year: A man in his early 20s climbed the Parliament wall and breached the Annexe building premises. The incident went viral after video footage showed him in casual clothes being overpowered by CISF jawans. No weapons were found, but it exposed perimeter weaknesses.
December 2023 Security Breach: On the 22nd anniversary of the 2001 Parliament terror attack, two men Sagar Sharma and Manoranjan D — leapt into the Lok Sabha chamber from the public gallery during Zero Hour, releasing yellow smoke canisters and shouting slogans. Simultaneously, Amol Shinde and Neelam Azad released coloured gas outside Parliament shouting “Tanashahi nahi chalegi.” All four were arrested along with Mahesh Kumawat and Lalit Jha.
- The breach triggered memories of the 2001 terror attack, when armed militants stormed Parliament, killing nine people.
- Earlier this week, the Delhi High Court sought the police’s response on a bail plea filed by Lalit Jha, one of the accused in the 2023 breach.
These incidents, coupled with today’s breach, suggest that Parliament security is being tested repeatedly.
