  The Sy 2 galaxy NGC 1241 presents a 1.5 kpc large circumnuclear ring of star
formation (CNR) embracing a small bar plus leading arms. Those structures are P
alpha emitters, but barely seen in H alpha. It presents also stellar trailing
arms inside the CNR. GEMINI and HST imagery allow the construction of high
resolution (V-H) and (J-K_s) color maps as well as a (J-K_s) vs. K
color-magnitude diagram (CMD) of this complex region. The CNR is heavily
obscured in V, but a fairly transparent window appears in the direction of the
nucleus. Nonetheless, the nucleus presents a (J-K_s) color that is redder than
the CNR. The CNR is composed of extremely young HII regions still enshrouded in
their dust cocoons. However, the nuclear (J-K_s) color can not be explained in
this manner. Therefore, we propose the contribution of C-Stars as the most
feasible mechanism for explaining the colors. If the nuclear stellar population
is comparable to that of the LMC bar, 500 C-stars and 25000 AGB O-rich stars
inside 50 pc may reproduce the observed colors. C-Stars release enriched
material to the nuclear environment, probably fueling the central engine of
this Sy 2 galaxy during the lifetime of stars with masses between 2 M_sun <
M_C-star < 6 M_sun (C-star phase). The ejected material that remains trapped in
the central potential might also explain the systematically observed increased
strength of the optical CN-bands in Sy 2 galaxies and is consistent with the
significant contribution of intermediate age stars to the optical continuum of
low luminosity AGNs.
