BENGALURU: Aditya Krishnamurthy Rao, the man who planted an explosive device at the Mangaluru International Airport on Monday and sent the police into a tizzy, had ordered the required material online, got it delivered home and assembled it.
In his statement to the police, Aditya is said to have confessed that he assembled the bomb at his residence in Manipal and had ordered most of the required material online. A senior police officer in Mangaluru, where he is being interrogated, told TNIE, “Aditya had left a bag with the explosive material at the airport. Interestingly, the bag even contained a package containing some white powder which he had ordered to his residential address through an online shopping site.”
Aditya had not only left the parcel with the address written on it, he had also telephoned the airport manager from his registered mobile number.
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“When the address and the call details matched, we knew that he was the person. In fact, as soon as we saw the CCTV footage, we realised it must be the same man as our database had a picture of him in a similar attire,” said another officer.The police then called his family members and showed them the CCTV footage to confirm his mannerisms and also to check if they could confirm if it was Aditya. “The family confirmed that it was him,” the officer added. Aditya surrendered at 8.30 am on Wednesday, reportedly due to fear that he might be eliminated in an encounter as the police had already identified him.
Mangaluru Police Commissioner S Harsha said Aditya claimed to have searched on Google “how to make a bomb” and watched several videos on YouTube. “There are multiple sources from which he has gathered information on making a bomb. It could either be the internet or from some anti-national criminals in jail. We need to interrogate him further,” Harsha said.A senior officer investigating the case told TNIE, “We found a piggy bank-like container, gunpowder, matchstick powder, a few connected wires, a white powder in a box and an object which looked like a timer device,” the officer explained.
However, a detonator, which is crucial in the making of any IED, was not found in the initial search. Officers said the bomb which they found very much resembled an IED and looked like the circuitry was complete. “Anyone can make an IED-like bomb. But the critical task is to fix the timer and detonator,” he said. “We can’t take chances. We had to secure it and take it to a safe place and destroy it,” Police Commissioner Harsha added.“He has given confessional statements to us on a sheet of paper. He told us that he doesn’t want to be bothered and would give whatever he has to say in writing,” said an investigating officer. As the Bengaluru police carried out only the preliminary investigation, the Mangaluru police were to take over the case, the statements were recorded in written form too.