Bengaluru: The accused who allegedly planted a bomb near the Mangaluru airport on Monday, triggering panic, has surrendered and is in police custody.
Aditya Rao, a resident of Manipal in Udupi, surrendered on Wednesday morning at the Karnataka police headquarters in Bengaluru. He was later taken to the Halsoor Gate police station for questioning.
After learning of Rao's surrender, Mangaluru Police Commissioner PS Harsha said in a tweett that his team would be heading to the state capital for further investigation in the case.
"The team will question the suspect and will initiate further necessary legal action," he said.
Rao, a 36-year-old engineering graduate and an MBA holder, is not new to crime or to the police. He was arrested in 2018 for making a hoax bomb call and was jailed for six months. Police sources said the suspect is not part of any terror module but a hoax caller, who was furious after being rejected for a job at the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in Bengaluru.
Rao had applied for the job of a security guard at the Bengaluru international airport, but had failed to provide the necessary documents. In an act of vengeance, he had called the Bengaluru airport on August 30, 2018, to say that he had planted bombs in an aircraft and in the parking lot of the airport.
After surrendering this time, Rao reportedly spilled the beans of planting a bomb at the Mangaluru airport. He confessed that he had made several hoax calls in the past. The police are now ascertaining how Rao managed to prepare an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) and where did he get the explosives and other stuff from. Even though the bomb was low intensive, police cannot rule out a serious security threat.
He was reportedly also involved in stealing of laptops from paying guest accommodations and was earlier arrested for stealing laptop and he was jailed for three months.
After Rao's arrest, Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai said that a fair investigation will take place.
“I had ensured fair and transparent probe in the case and police have done a great job. We did not care what community the accused belonged to,” Bommai said.
Former Chief Minister HD Kumarswamy slammed the Centre, claiming that jobless youth in the country were resorting to desperate measures like these and turning into terrorists.
"Our educated youngsters are running around on the streets trying to get jobs. Mechanical engineers and computer engineers have applied for small jobs even as security guards, they are applying for even the lowest kind of jobs, you (PM) should first try to solve the issue of unemployment," he said.
It is being said that Rao had come to Bengaluru in 2012 in search of job and he got placed at a private bank. But he quit the job within a short span and returned to Mangaluru where he worked as a security guard. He also had worked in Puthige Mutt, Udupi as a cook for some time. He thereafter went to Bengaluru again and joined an insurance company. Later, he left that job too and tried to become security staff at the airport.
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