As he surrendered before the police, Lalit Jha, the alleged mastermind behind the Parliament security breach, is revealed to be a 'reserved man' who taught students at Burrabazar in Kolkata before vanishing from the locality two years ago.
Local people recall him as a reserved individual who seldom engaged with the community, reported PTI.
According to Papun Shaw, a tea stall owner at Rabindra Sarani in the Burrabazar area, Jha was a 'teacher'. "He used to teach local students. A few years back, he came to the area and was living alone. He hardly used to interact with locals. At times, he would have tea at my stall. He used to keep a very low profile. He suddenly left the area two years ago and never returned," Shaw added.
Another resident too remembers Jha as a teacher who hardly spoke to locals. "He used to teach the children at his rented place. We knew that his father was a watchman in the area. They were two brothers," the resident said. Two years back, he left the area as they shifted to Baguiati in North 24 Parganas district.
Jha was also said to have close contact with Neelaksh Aich, founder of an NGO. According to Aich, he met Jha in April this year at a seminar on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in Kolkata. "Some researchers and writers were also there. At times, we spoke about work related to the NGO. Lalit was among the event organizers. Yesterday at around 1 pm, he sent me a video on WhatsApp. After returning home, when I saw the news on TV, I saw it was a video of the same incident," Aich told a Bengali news channel. Jha recorded a video of Neelam and Amol shouting slogans and releasing yellow-coloured smoke from canisters outside the Parliament building and sent it to Neelaksh Aich.
However, police believe Jha was the mastermind of the attack. Led by Jha, Sagar Sharma and Manoranjan met in Mysuru a year ago where they made a plan to barge into the Parliament. They later added Neelam and Amol to the plan.
According to investigating officials, Lalit had entrusted Manoranjan to do a recce of all entry points of the Parliament during the Monsoon Session. "In July, Manoranjan came to Delhi and went inside Parliament on a visitor pass issued in the name of an MP. There, he got to know that the frisking of shoes does not happen," the official said.
However, all four accused, during interrogation, reportedly claimed that the act was self-motivated and they were planning and executing the whole incident on their own.
Police sources said the scope of the probe was expanded with the role of a few more people suspected of Wednesday's security breach. The police are also examining the bank accounts of the accused to check whether they received funding from anywhere.
Jha's Kolkata connection has triggered a political debate in the state, with West Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar accusing TMC MLA Tapas Roy of being in "convenience" with Jha. Majumdar shared two photographs of Roy with Jha on X.
However, Roy denied any knowledge of Jha and alleged that the BJP is now trying to shift the goalpost. "We are public representatives; several people click pictures with us. We don't know everybody in person. The BJP is now trying to shift the blame as they want to divert attention from their failures," he said.