Lalit Jha, the suspected mastermind of Wednesday’s Parliament security breach, was in Kolkata till a few days ago.
An officer in the city police said Lalit, who was arrestedin Delhi on Thursday night, was in Baguiati “till two-three days ago and then left Bengal”.
The Special Task Force of Kolkata police found that most of Lalit’s family livedin Kolkata till a few months ago. Now they mostly stay in Bihar and occasionally visit Kolkata.
A team of officers on Thursday obtained three addresses — in Burrabazar, Girish Park and Baguiati — where Lalit and his family lived. All three were found locked.
“We received information about the person (Lalit Jha) from a sister agency. We are pursuing some leads and will share our findings with the agency,” said a senior officer at Lalbazar who is overseeing the matter.
Who is Lalit Jha?
Lalit, named a suspect in Wednesday’s Parliament security breach, is originally from Darbhanga district in Bihar but has spent several years in Kolkata.
The youth is better known as “masterji” in theRabindra Sarani neighbourhood where he lived with his family. “He was soft-spoken and used to teach young students. They used to live in a rented house here,” said a resident of the stretch of Rabindra Sarani where the Jhas lived.
The police said the Jhas lived at 218 Rabindra Sarani.
Sources said Jha’s parents and the youngest brotherhad returned to their hometown.
Lalit, who is the second of three siblings, studied in a school in the Burrabazar area and also went to a college in Kolkata.
The Jhas lived at multiple addresses in Kolkata.
Lalit’s father, whom neighbours called “panditji (priest)”, and his two brothers left for another rented apartment in Girish Park a few years ago. “Lalit (Jha) would teach children in both the addresses,” said a resident of the neighbourhood on Thursday.
Sonu, one of his brothers, said over the phone that he (Sonu) was in Darbhanga (on Thursday). “I do not remember exactly when I last met or spoke to Lalit. I came to know about the Parliament thing only on Thursday morning from TV,” he said.
Lalit’s elder brother Shambhu, who lives in Kolkata, told The Telegraph: “I last spoke to him on December 10. Ourparents were to catch a train but as I had met with an accident on Diwali… I requested him to drop our parents offat the station.”
He said that after Girish Park, the family shifted to Baguiati where Lalit lived with their parents and youngest brother.
Shambhu lives in a separate house in Baguiati with his wife and two children.
“I don’t know who brainwashed him. He was so goodin English and would teach children. He was alwaysin constructive activities,”he said.
A homemaker in the Rabindra Sarani locality where the Jhas lived said: “A few years ago, some dispute cropped up when Lalit locked the main door and left the house. They did not return after that.”
Lalit’s Instagram handle has posts containing quotes of Swami Vivekananda, Subhas Chandra Bose, Bhagat Singh and Rashbehari Basu. There is also a post praising Kolkata High Court judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay.
The police said Lalit had connections with many young students, one of whom — Nilaksha Aich — he had allegedly contacted after the Parliament security breach on Wednesday afternoon.
Lalit allegedly sent Aich a video of the canisters belching smoke outside Parliament moments after the incident.
Who is Nilaksha Aich?
A resident of Halisahar in North 24-Parganas, around 48km from the heart of Kolkata, Aich studies at a college in Salt Lake and also runs an NGO in Purulia. According to Aich, he was closely associated with Lalit as the latter worked in his NGO.
“We met in April in a hall on Central Avenue where we were attending a social welfare programme. I saw he (Lalit) was very active in organising the event and invited him to join my NGO. He accepted the offer,” Aich said.
Aich, however, said he had not known about the Parliament security breach when he got the video from Lalit over WhatsApp.
“He sent me a video and texted me asking me to circulate it. I asked him what
it was about. He did not respond. There was no connection with him after that. I
had no idea about the Parliament breach at that time,” he said.
A team from the Barrackpore Police Commissonerate went to meet Aich at
his Halisahar home on Thursday.
“We went to speak to the boy after we heard that a suspect of the Parliament security breach had contacted him,” said an officer of the commissionerate.