MYSURU: Books and travel were the only things close to Manoranjan D’s heart, his family says. “My son has a heart of gold. He never took up a job but always wanted to do something good for the society,” his father Devaraj Gowda said on Wednesday after the 34-year-old engineering graduate was arrested with three others for a
security breach
inside the Lok Sabha.
Manoranjan is accused of opening a canister of yellow smoke inside Parliament. “If he has carried out any anti-national activities, let him be sent to the gallows,” Devaraj said. The family last saw Manoranjan in Mysuru on December 11. “He was going to Bengaluru, and I don’t know when he went to Delhi,” Devaraj told TOI.
Unemployed by choice, Manoranjan had for some time helped his father in the family business of sheep breeding and pisciculture. It wasn’t immediately clear why he joined the “protest” in Parliament, but local police said he might have been influenced by
social media groups
, including a ‘Bhagat Singh Fan Page’.
Devaraj had shifted to Mysuru from Hassan to support his son’s education 15 years ago. Manoranjan studied at Marimallappa High School and went to St Joseph’s College in Mysuru before studying for a degree in computer science at Bangalore Institute of Technology.
Devaraj said former PM H D Devegowda had helped his son get an engineering seat but Manoranjan had “never professed any ideology”. Manoranjan is a supporter of BJP MP Pratap Simmha, whose team allegedly issued the pass for him to enter Parliament, he added.
