To extort money from IT firm, Chennai techie sets off mini bomb at tech park

The employee was in need of Rs 50 lakh and had sent an email to his employers requesting for the same.

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Chennai police arrested a 29-year-old IT employee for allegedly setting off a mini bomb in an IT park where his office is situated after his plans to extort money from his employers failed.

According to reports, the incident happened on June 7 in Mahindra World City, an Information Technology Special Economic Zone (SEZ) near Singaperumal Koil in the outskirts of Chennai. Karthikeyan, an employee who worked in an IT firm in the business park, was in immediate need of Rs 50 lakh for personal purposes. He had sent an email to his employers requesting for the money. However, there was no response to that email.

Angered by this lack of response, Karthikeyan, an electrical and electronics engineering graduate, allegedly built a small bomb and set it up to work with a mobile app that he had downloaded from the internet. On June 7, he took the bomb, hidden inside a ball to his workplace and caused it to explode outside the IT Park. Karthikeyan allegedly told the police that his plan was to blackmail his employers of a bigger explosion if they did not give in to his monetary demands. But all that the bomb did was to cough up a lot of smoke.

The security guards, who were posted outside Mahindra World City, reported the incident to the Chengalpet police who arrived at the spot and conducted inquiries. After rounds of questioning and analyzing the CCTV footage from the spot, the police zeroed in on Karthikeyan and traced his residence to Maraimalai Nagar, a locality around 10 kilometres from Mahindra World City.

Karthikeyan, realizing that he was trapped and was going to be arrested, allegedly tried to kill himself in his house while the police reached there and apprehended him. He has been arrested and remanded to judicial custody.