E-Paper
Bengaluru stalker plants explosive in mixer to kill woman, one injured: Police
A 28-year-old stalker in Karnataka’s Haasan taluk allegedly planted an explosive inside a mixer grinder to take revenge from a 32-year-old woman for rejecting his advances, police said on Tuesday.
A 28-year-old stalker in Karnataka’s Haasan taluk allegedly planted an explosive inside a mixer grinder to take revenge from a 32-year-old woman for rejecting his advances, police said on Tuesday.
They added that one person was injured after the mixer grinder exploded at a courier office on Monday evening. The accused was yet to be arrested at the time of filing this report.
Police also said that initially, they suspected it to be a case of terror but a probe into the matter revealed that the accused wanted to take revenge from the woman.
According to Hassan superintendent of police (SP) Hariram Shankar, the accused from Bengaluru was stalking the woman in Hassan through social media for quite some time. In the past, he even tried sending a few items to the woman through courier services but the latter rejected his gifts and advances.
It was not immediately clear as to how the accused got the woman’s details.
Miffed over her actions, the accused planned to kill the woman.
The SP said the accused allegedly planted an explosive inside the mixer grinder and sent the parcel to the woman, without mentioning his name. The woman, however, refused to accept it and asked the courier office in KR Puram to return it to the sender.
The owner of the courier office, Shashikumar, demanded ₹350 from the woman to send back the parcel but she refused to pay and left the spot, the officer said.
At 7.30pm on Monday, Shashikumar opened the parcel and tried to see whether the mixer was working or not. The mixer eventually exploded and he was injured.
“The stalker tried to kill the woman to take revenge and fixed a small explosive in the mixer grinder which exploded when the appliance was switched on,” Shankar said.
The woman has also been detained for questioning, he added.
Police said Shashikumar is undergoing treatment at Hassan Institute of Medical Sciences (HIMS) and is out of danger.
A forensic team later visited and collected samples from the site of the explosion. Subsequently, they confirmed that the explosive used for the blast was not among those used for terror activities and urged citizens not to panic.
“A police team left for Bengaluru to arrest the accused on the basis of the woman’s statement,” Hassan circle inspector M Krishnaraju said.
The extension police have registered a case under sections 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means) and 307 (attempt to murder) of Indian Penal Code and provisions of The Explosives Act and said a probe is underway.
