City police release assailant’s sketch

City police release assailant’s sketch
Deccan Herald

Bangalore Police Commissioner Ajai Kumar Singh said there “are no specific clues” about the suspect involved in the attack at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc).....

Bangalore Police Commissioner Ajai Kumar Singh said there “are no specific clues” about the suspect involved in the attack at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). However, a portrait of the suspected terrorist who killed a retired IIT professor in indiscriminate firing on the IISc campus was released by the Bangalore City Police on Friday.

Addressing the media, Mr Singh said the portrait was generated on the basis of descriptions given by an eyewitness at the IISc. The portrait copies “will be dispatched to other parts of the country” and a “handsome reward will be given” to anybody who leads the police to the culprit. However, the portrait in itself may not be considered a vital lead. Otherwise, there “has been no breakthrough” as such in the investigations and no one “has claimed responsibility for the attack so far,” he said. Investigations so far seem to point that only one was involved in the attack.

Mr Singh denied that three others were nabbed in Hyderabad in connection with the IISc attack as reported in some sections of the media. There has been no information about this from the Hyderabad police.

Special teams have been sent outside the State but so far no significant clues have been found. The City police are coordinating with their counterparts in Rajasthan, Hyderabad, Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi and Mumbai and also with the Central and State Intelligence. No assistance has been sought from the Central forces. However, information is being shared, he said.

The police are contemplating setting up a separate counter-intelligence wing on the lines of other metropolitan cities in the country.

He regretted that mobile patrolling system in the City was poor and said the government was considering upgrading it.

The police will also coordinate with premier institutes like IISc to ensure security whenever events like a conference is held.

On the fax message that claimed that blasts will occur at the Hotel Grand Ashok and chief minister’s residence, he said if the destruction was intended, a message would not have been sent so early. However, as a precautionary measure, security has been beefed up at the CM’s residence.

Speaking to reporters after a brief interaction with the faculty of IISc, M Singh said the police have not dismantled the three live grenades that were recovered from the scene of the shoot-out so as to ascertain the source.