Police using image-enhancing tech to identify bomber

The City police and the National Investigation Agency teams probing the recent Malleswaram bomb blast have resorted to image-enhancement technology to identify the bomber who parked the explosive-laden motorbike in front of an apartment complex near the BJP headquarters.

Though the police claim they have not found any leads from the CCTV footage, that has been one of the crucial lines of investigation into the case. The CCTV cameras at Sai Apartments, in front of which the IED-laden bike was parked, are said to have given out some images of the bomber.

Apartment owner Narayan Reddy told Deccan Herald that the CCTV was focused on his office just next to the road in the ground floor and not on the street.

However, the camera is said to have captured hazy images of a bald man parking the bike in front of the complex at 10:22 am and walking away tensed. The blast is recorded at 10:28 am and the camera goes off due to the impact of the explosion.

Reddy said the police had taken the hard disk on the day of the blast along with 30 days’ backup of the recorded footage. He said the police had told him that they had found some crucial leads into the case from the footage.

Sources say the police are employing the image-enhancement technology with the help of forensic experts to get a clearer image of the bomber.

Sources also say the police, with inputs from one of the civilian eyewitnesses and the hazy CCTV images, have prepared a sketch of the suspect wearing a blue T-shirt.

However, Pranob Mohanty, Joint Commissioner (Crime West), leading the investigation, said all forensic examinations were being conducted such as explosive chemical analysis, footprint, fingerprint analysis, crash data retrieval (CDR) and CCTV footage.

He refused to provide any further information stating it will hamper the investigation.
NIA sources said they were trying to map the route the bomber had taken to the blast site with the help of CCTV footage of traffic cameras all across the City.
Officials said the bike, a Suzuki Max 100 R, often not seen on the City roads these days, would be easy to spot in the footage.