Thiruvananthapuram:
A former CISF man was arrested on Sunday for allegedly planting crude explosive material in a Kingfisher aircraft here last week, police said.
Rajasekharan Nair (49), an employee of a private agency engaged for ground-handling work at airport, has confessed to have placed the material in the cargo-hold of the Kingfisher flight which arrived here from Bangalore last Sunday, police said.
Nair, who is from nearby Narvamoodu, was taken into custody two days ago.
Nair is being questioned to ascertain the motive behind his action, IG (South) A Hemachandran and City Police Commissioner R Ajith Kumar told reporters.
Asked if it was any personal enmity with some security personnel at the airport that prompted the former CISF man to commit the crime, the officers said the statements given by him had to be verified before drawing any conclusion.
On Nair's antecedents, they said he had served CISF for 20 years before he took voluntary retirement in 2003 and joined three years back the Universal Aviation Private Service Ltd, which had ground-handling jobs contract at the airport.
When the incident happened, Nair was the supervisor of the ground-handling work at the airport. Surprisingly, it was Nair who had brought the matter to the notice of authorities.
Giving details of the probe, the IGP said soon after the incident at the Bangalore Airport, investigators got clues that the explosive was planted in the aircraft when it was parked at the airport here.
The material consisted of chemicals used for pyrotechnic in festivals which could get ignited due to pressure or temperature.
A critical lead to solve the case came from the paper in which the material was wrapped, which was part of a Malayalam newspaper distributed in Nedumangad area, about 25 km from here. There was also a piece of question paper of a school examination conducted in Kerala last year.
Pursuing this lead, investigators tracked down a licensed dealer of explosives, who manufactures and conducts fireworks in festivals in temples, he said.
A couple of days before the airport incident, a firework display was conducted in a temple at the place from where the arrested person hailed.
After further inquiries linking these clues, police zoomed in on Nair and interrogations led to his admission that it was he who planted the material inside the aircraft.
To a question if the incident had any terror link or not, the IGP said such possibilities could be confirmed only after further investigations.
"We will be able to give definite motives only after a detailed investigation. We will be moving the court to get him in police custody for further investigation."
On the security issues involved in the incident, Hemachandran said a report would be sent to the central agencies based on the available information.