Thirty-six-year-old serial hoax-bomb caller Aditya Rao had been planning to plant bomb at Mangalore International Airport (MIA) for a month, according to sources in City Crime Branch (CCB) police.
As part of the plan, he had secured employment as a billing clerk at Kudla family restaurant in Balmatta on December 16. A fortnight before planting the bomb, he resigned from the job on “health grounds” on January 5. The CCB police said while working in the restaurant Aditya was not in contact with his father, a retired banker who had shifted from Manipal to Chilimbi in Mangaluru.
“The father had disowned his son after Aditya was arrested for making hoax bomb calls to Kempegowda International Airport (KIA). He had relocated from Manipal in order escape the ignominy,” CCB police sources added. Mediapersons, who rushed to the apartment in Chilimbi, were prevented from meeting the father B Krishnamurthy by the security guards on Wednesday.
The CCB succeeded in tracking down the restaurant by showing photographs of Aditya at dozens of hotels in Kundapur, Udupi and Mangaluru. It was at Kudla family restaurant where the staff recognised him as Aditya from his white hat, diary and the black hunch bag. “They were an integral part of his life and he never went out without them,” sources in the
hotel said.
The staff said that Aditya’s work hours in the morning extended from 10 am to 3.30 pm and from 6 pm to 11 pm. “Though he got a job as a
watchman, he opted for a at restaurant as he was also assured of free vegetarian food,” the sources said.
Aditya was punctual, stickler to time and never made any mistakes during the billing. He was eccentric, never got acquainted with anyone in the office. When not billing, he used to write furiously on the diary. “His reluctance to shoulder additional responsibilities had made the management wary of him. When he resigned on health grounds on January 4, the management readily
accepted it,” according to sources.
He would often claim to be in depression over his father’s death or his health. He used to order online and his hands were found coated with white powdery substance. Prior to his arrest in Bengaluru he was detained by Railway policemen in 2017. He had assaulted the railway staff for disregarding his complaint on cleanliness.
“Later, he had kept his luggage, including a bag, at the Railway police station. When he did not return to collect them, we had contacted a relative based on the address found in the luggage. The relative, while collecting the luggage, had said that Aditya had lost his mental balance after being dumped by a girlfriend,” Railway police sources said.
After his release from jail, he was working for some time at a bar and restaurant in Karkala, the police sources added.