The accused a mechanical engineer also holds an MBA degree.

BENGALURU: A 36-year-old man walked into the Karnataka police headquarters here on Wednesday, owning responsibility for placing a backpack with explosive material outside the Mangalore International Airport on Monday which had triggered a security scare.

Claiming he was hitting back at the system that failed to provide him with a job, Udupi’s Aditya Rao, an engineer and MBA graduate, walked into DG&IGP’s office and said, “I’ve come to surrender.” He claimed he wanted to expose chinks in the security system. Rao was later taken to a court and handed him over to Mangaluru police for quizzing. tnn

“I don’t know how to make a bomb, but I wanted to prepare something that would explode. I stuffed chemical powder scraped from the head of matchsticks along with chemicals sourced from crackers and put them in a box,” Rao reportedly told investigators.

Sources said Rao had procured chemicals from an e-commerce portal and put them into the box and fixed two wires. “The matchstick contains a combination of potassium chlorate and sulphur. It can ignite under right conditions,” a police officer said.

Rao reportedly told the police: “I knew sulphur would explode when lit. I did not have batteries, I could not make a timer. Planning to set off the explosives, I carried a matchbox to the airport. On reaching the VIP counter, I saw security personnel and sniffer dogs all around. Afraid of being caught, I abandoned the bag and walked away.”

Rao is reported to have said, “The country has gone to the dogs in the past 60-70 years. We were better under the British. I hate the system that failed to offer a decent job to a person like me even though I have an engineering degree and a master’s in business administration,” he said.

Rao’s family stopped communicating with him nearly three years ago, speaking to him only once, in 2018, when his mother passed away, said his younger brother.

Akshath Rao, a banker, hinted that Aditya’s behaviour had become problematic and their father’s repeated attempts to counsel him failed, following which the family decided to cut ties sometime in 2017.

Aditya, a 36-year-old out-of-work mechanical engineer, was arrested in 2018 over bomb hoaxes at Bengaluru airport and KSR railway station. He was released from Chikkaballapura Jail about two months ago. “We are not responsible for his actions,” said Akshath, who lives in Mangaluru with the father. He added that the family was cooperating with police investigations.

The family has roots in Manipal, Udupi district . The father worked as a banker and the mother was a homemaker. Aditya studied engineering and obtained an MBA degree . Akshath said he and Aditya grew up almost separately after the latter moved into a hostel in class VIII. They mostly met at family functions.

Aditya’s relationship with the family soured a few years ago. “You can check, we never contacted him. Even during his previous arrest, we didn’t approach him or try to get him bail. We got to know he was in Mangaluru only yesterday (Tuesday) and we are scared,” Akshath said.

Their mother passed away when Aditya was in prison for the bomb hoaxes in Bengaluru.

