Mangaluru : Hours after Aditya Rao, accused of planting a live explosive at Mangaluru International Airport was brought to Mangaluru, city police commissioner Dr PS Harsha said that the accused studied how to assemble an explosive device online.

Speaking to media persons, Dr Harsha informed that Rao, who is an engineering graduate and an MBA, had worked in financial sector for some time but after some time he felt that white collar jobs were not suited for him and turned towards blue-collar jobs. He took up a job as security guard of a reputed college in the district. He also worked at few hotels in the city before leaving for Bengaluru.

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. Rao returned to his native, Manipal and with a lawyers assistance and readied his paperwork. However when he found that the job had been given to another candidate he harbored resentment against airport officials, said Harsha.

In the same year, an irate and dejected Rao made bomb hoax calls to KIA and later to KSR railway station. He was arrested in this connection and was sent to Chikkaballapur jail for 11 months.

After his release, Rao began working at a hotel in Mangaluru and also began gathering knowledge on how to make explosive devices online. He procured most of the material for preparing the explosive through e-commerce platforms and zeroed in on Mangaluru International Airport to execute his plans.

He decided to quit his Mangaluru job after co-workers grew suspicious of his activities and took up a job at Karkala. Having assembled the device, Rao took a bus to Mangaluru initially from where he took another bus to Bajpe. Later he took an auto to reach the airport,” said the top cop.

After his images were released by the police, Rao travelled to Bengaluru and surrendered before the police there. He has been booked under Section 5 of the Explosive Substance Act and suitable sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, he added.