Bengaluru: A 36-year-old man, who is suspected to have planted an explosive at the Mangaluru international airport, surrendered before the police here on Wednesday, officials said.
The man turned up at the director general of police’s office here, where he has been detained for inquiry and medical tests.
The suspect has been identified as Adithya Rao, a native of Manipal, they said, adding he resembled the images of a man seen placing the explosive on CCTV footage at Mangaluru airport.
The suspect confessed to having planted the bomb at the airport, sources said.
Meanwhile, a team of police officials from Mangaluru has arrived in the city to question the suspect.
Mangaluru City police commissioner P.S. Harsha tweeted that the investigation team will question the suspect and initiate further legal action.
Mangaluru city police investigation team is flying into Bengaluru shortly to investigate the developments in connection with MIA case.. the team will question the suspect and will initiate further necessary legal action..
— Harsha IPS CP Mangaluru City (@compolmlr) January 22, 2020
Police sources said Rao, who was taken to Halsoor Gate police station in Bengaluru for questioning, is an engineering graduate and holds a post-graduate degree in business administration.
He had earlier been arrested for making a hoax bomb call to Bengaluru airport in 2018 and was jailed for six months.
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This was an act of revenge as he was allegedly denied the job of a security guard by the Bengaluru airport, for lack of certain documents.
Rao had come to Bengaluru in 2012 seeking a job and landed one in a private bank, which he resigned.
He then returned to Mangaluru, where he worked as a security guard for six months and then as a cook in Puthige Mutt in Udupi.
Later, he went back to the state capital and joined an insurance company, which he left and tried to become a security staff at the airport, the sources said.
A ‘live’ explosive device was found in an unattended bag near a ticket counter of the departure gate of the international airport in Mangaluru on Monday and later defused at a nearby open ground.