Though many were detained in Ceylon, several party leaders were able to escape to India, evading arrest. These included Party General Secretary Leslie Goonewardene and his wife, Vivienne Goonewardene. They settled in Calcutta, and established networks with the local Trotskyist networks. Other Ceylonese Trotskysists established contact with the Uttar Pradesh Trotskyist group, as well as groups in Bombay and Madras. On the 7th April 1942, Philip Gunawardena, N. M. Perera, Edmund Samarakkody and Colvin R. de Silva escaped from prison aided by the prison guards and party activists Doric de Souza and Vernon Gunasekera. The BLPI was formed in May 1942 and was approved by the Fourth International.