Drunk teenager’s claim on Patna blasts sends cops into a tizzy

A drunken teenager’s ‘Darbhanga connection’ had senior Delhi Police officials biting their nails during Sunday’s serial blasts in Patna.

A drunken teenager’s ‘Darbhanga connection’ had senior Delhi Police officials biting their nails during Sunday’s serial blasts in Patna.

Employed as an office boy at a television channel in Noida’s Film City, an 18-year-old named Jai Prakash Jha was arrested for failing to deliver on the ‘sensational’ intelligence inputs he had promised the Delhi Police Central Police Control Room (DPCR) in southeast Delhi.

“Jha made a call to the control room at 16:47 pm and said he was from Bihar and could help us arrest the people behind the blasts,” said a senior police officer.“What made matters worse for us, as police personnel, was the fact that he had introduced himself as a resident of Darbhanga’s Jhanjar Pur; his plausible links to the Indian Mujahideen’s (IM) Darbhanga module looming in the background.”

Personnel from the local control room scrambled to Jha’s location — below the Sarita Vihar flyover only to find him reeking of alcohol and struggling to stand up. After a few minutes, the police were sure that it was a hoax call. “He told us he was watching news of the Patna serial blasts while getting drunk at his office and admitted it was the only topic he could come up with to pull a fast one on us at the time,” said an officer.