Mangaluru bomb planter a hoax caller: Cops

A day after an IED was discovered at the Mangalore International Airport (MIA), the police appeared to have made a breakthrough in the case, with the suspect being identified as a habitual hoax caller.

According to a senior Mangaluru police officer monitoring the investigation, the suspect is not part of any terror module but a hoax caller, who is irate after he was rejected for a job at the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in Bengaluru.

The alleged suspect has been identified as Adithya Rao, 36, a resident of KHB Colony in Manipal, Udupi district.

Rao, who is an engineering graduate and an MBA, was arrested from Baiyappanahalli by a joint team of Internal Security Division (ISD) and Bengaluru police in 2018 for making hoax calls to KIA and Krantiveera Sangolli Rayanna (KSR) railway station.

Rao was identified as the suspect based on the CCTV footage recovered from the airport on Monday. The Mangaluru police shared the footage with Bengaluru and other police officers in the state following which the Bengaluru police identified him as Rao and sent his details to the Mangaluru police on Tuesday morning.

Rao has four cases against him in Bengaluru, including hoax calls, theft and theft by dwelling.

A senior police officer in Bengaluru said Rao was remanded in judicial custody after his arrest in 2018.

“During his interrogation, and also when he was sent to jail, Rao had told officers that he is going to create havoc in future (Munde ide mari habba),” said the police officer.

“We don’t know when he was released, but now the only question he has to answer this why he resorted to planting explosives when he used to make only hoax calls.’’

Rao, who worked in private firms, quit his jobs over issues with the management. Later, he worked in a mutt and at a private college as security officer in Mangaluru following which he came to Bengaluru.

During his stay in Bengaluru, he stayed in paying guest accommodation in Jayanagar and in South-East Bengaluru and worked in hotels as a security officer.

The police said that Rao applied for a job in KIA for a security officer’s post in 2018. But his application was rejected as there was an issue with his documents. An angry Rao, police said, stormed out of the interview warning that he would wreak havoc.

In August 2018, a couple of days after the interview, Rao called the same nodal officer who had rejected him and told him that he had planted a bomb in the premises of airport.

Two days later, Rao made another call and informed KIA officials that he had planted bombs in domestic flights and airport premises.

Before he started making hoax calls, Rao, who is unmarried, had stolen laptops of his PG inmates.