The former Karnataka minister, UT Khader, claimed that the Intelligence Department in Karnataka has failed in handling Mangaluru airport bomb scare case.

His comment was in the context of the incident on Monday when a bag containing explosives was found at Mangaluru International Airport, and subsequent developments.

On Wednesday, one Adithya Rao, a native of Manipal, surrendered before the Bengaluru Police claiming responsibility for placing the explosive at the airport, and calling the airport to say explosives have been placed in an aircraft.

Khader said there has been intelligence failure on two fronts. First, the accused placed the explosive near the ticket counter. Second, the accused Rao safely reached Bengaluru before surrendering to the police there.

Stating that now the accused is being depicted as a mentally unstable person, he wondered in such a case how did the accused manage to place the explosive material at the airport and reach Bengaluru without any problem.

Suspecting a conspiracy in this case, he said the forces behind this conspiracy should be identified and punished.

Khader also took exception to the statements of some ministers from BJP — from Central and State governments — who had linked the incident to the anti-CAA protests in the country. One of the ministers even blamed the people from Kerala for this incident, he said.

To a query on the former Karnataka Chief Minister, HD Kumaraswamy, describing the disposal of the explosive as ‘high drama’, Khader said Kumaraswamy who had been chief minister would know about the operations of the intelligence and home departments.

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