A woman masquerading as a Congress legislator from Kanpur was arrested from inside the Vidhan Sabha on Tuesday, revealing the glaring lapses in the security arrangements.
The woman, Sarita Jaiswal, claimed proximity to a Union minister and claimed that she was known to several “high-profile people”.
Soon after the House proceedings began, Sarita Jaiswal, clad in a black sari and brimming with confidence, walked through the security checks claiming that she was a Congress legislator from Kanpur. Since the Vidhan Sabha has 169 new faces, the security personnel were diffident to ask her for her identity card. One of them, however, asked her for her identity card and she replied that “(Rita Bahuguna) Joshi is bringing my papers because I have to be sworn in today”.
As soon as she entered the Vidhan Sabha, another legislator from Kanpur walked in and the security personnel asked him if the lady was also a MLA. When he denied that she was a legislator, the security guards immediately caught the woman and led her away.
She was later handed over to the police where she started behaving abnormally to prove that she was mentally stable.
She broke her mobile phone and started making incoherent statements. She was being interrogated toll the time of filing this report.
Congress legislature Party leader Pramod Tiwari told reporters the woman was not a Congress member, leave alone a legislator.
“If she has managed to enter the Vidhan Sabha, it is a serious security lapse because a person without a bona fide pass in the prohibited area is termed as ‘ajnabi’ as per the Assembly rules,” Mr Tiwari said.
The woman, it is learnt, also claims to be a principal of a local school.
Incidentally, chief minister Akhilesh Yadav was present inside the Assembly when the incident took place.