Man who detected flight explosive planted it: Police

It was on March 20 that a ball-like,low-intensity cracker was found in the flight,raising serious concern about the safety checks at the airports. The flight had reached Thiruvananthapuram on the same morning from Bangalore. The explosive was detected by the cleaning crew of the airline,half-an-hour before the flights take-off to Bangalore.

After placing the explosive in the flight,Nair himself detected the stuff and alerted the security agencies and the airport authorities. Finding the explosive at the flight would be normally depicted as the lapse of the security officer,whom Nair disliked. Normally,the axe would fall on his enemy; this was Nairs strategy,claimed the police.

The explosive was found covered with the copy of a local newspaper and a question paper distributed in a particular area in Thiruvananthapuram. Tracking down the newspaper vendor,the police identified the cracker retailer,who used to supply material for fireworks for festival celebrations. The cracker retailer told the police that Nair had purchased explosives for the festival at a local temple,where he had been associated with governing matters. The ingredients of the temple fireworks and the cracker detected in the flight looked similar in the investigation,forcing the police to zero in on Nair,who had opted for VRS from CISF in 2003.

Police sources said the incident exposed the chinks at the airport security,especially at the domestic terminal.