Pic: Spoorthi Ullal

Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP/ANK)

Mangaluru, Jan 23: City police commissioner Dr P S Harsha, addressed a press conference here on Thursday January 23, wherein he gave details of investigation into the incident of planting a bomb at the airport here, and the background of the accused Adithya Rao.

He said that CCTV footage and witness accounts have proved that the person who left a bag containing bomb at the airport was Adithya Rao, who is currently in the custody of the police here. "We have questioned Rao after he was brought from Bengaluru by a flight which reached here at 9 pm on Wednesday. The investigation team has put together various information about him. Adithya is 32 now, and he has secured engineering degree from a prestigious college at Mysuru. He worked in different departments but for a short time. He got his MBA postgraduate degree in marketing and operations management from another well-known college," he stated.

The commissioner started that Rao opted to undertake blue collar jobs as he had lost interest in indoor jobs because it does not suit his health, and he desired to work in basic fields. He soon got frustrated as he felt he was not getting the recognition he deserves in the society. He worked as security guard in SDM College, Alva's etc. He then took up job in hotel as this job also provided food and stay. He also worked for MTR and Domino’s Pizza. He tried to bag the job of security guard at Bengaluru airport which carried pay of Rs 25,000. He worked in several hotels including Kamadhenu Auto CNC at Peenya, Krishna Grand, Akshaya Grand etc in Whitefield Bengaluru. He also worked for Toyota by producing fake documents but left job after two months as he was apprehensive about getting caught. He also worked for technology platform companies. When he tried to get a job at Bengaluru airport, they sought affidavit to give him the job after initially saying that he was over-qualified. But by the time he came back to Udupi, collected affidavit and went back, the job was offered to someone else. Frustrated by the turn of events, he put together information about the works and duties performed by different staff, before making a bomb hoax call as a result of which several flights were disrupted.

He faced three cases and in a case of making bomb hoax call to the railway station, he spent nearly a year inside Chikkaballapur prison. After coming out of jail, he wanted to do something big and studied about explosives, assembling of bombs, etc.

Adithya was always feeling that his talent and capabilities have not been recognized.

Adithya joined Hotel Kudla here in December first week and ordered materials he needed online. Although other employees got suspicious about the parcels he received, he convinced them by giving different replies. He used to assemble the device during the weekly holidays. Before the assembly was completed, he moved to a hotel in Karkala. Once he was confident that he was fully prepared, he came from Karkala to State Bank here on January 20, and took a bus to Kenjar where he hired an auto rickshaw to reach the airport, the commissioner stated.

“Before reaching the airport, he had dropped a bag at a salon in Kenjar. After placing one bag at the airport he picked up the other from the salon and then escaped to Sirsi, Shivamogga before reaching Bengaluru by a KSRTC bus.

“When he found that police were in search of him and found no way other to escape, he surrendered to the police.

“The accused has been booked under Explosive Substances Act under section 5, 6, Unlawful Activities Prevention Act under section 10, 11, 13, 18, and IPC 1860 under section 120B, 307," he said. 

The commissioner added that Rao would be produced in court on Thursday and his police custody would be sought.