The police investigation into the Kalamassery bomb blast took a startling turn on Sunday afternoon, with a former member of the evangelist group Jehovah’s Witnesses claiming responsibility for the attack that claimed one life and left scores of worshippers injured at the crowded prayer convention.
It seemed that one aspect of the police probe had pivoted towards the inner workings of the almost cult-like religious organisation with a significant presence in Kerala.
At the same time, the police were pursuing other trails, including a car that suspiciously left the locality moments before the explosion and radical organisations inimical to international evangelical organisations that back Israel’s political line against Palestine.
Additional Director General of Police, Law and Order, M. R. Ajith Kumar, told reporters the investigators were verifying the integrity of the suspect’s claim.
They were also probing a FB video purportedly broadcast by the suspect, a resident of Kochi. The video, if true, seemed to suggest that profound differences of opinion in the religious organisation resulted in the “insider attack”.
The police were investigating the time-stamp of the video to determine whether the creator had posted it before or after the blast.
The person in the video claimed that he was a zealous group member for 16 years. However, he got disenchanted with the group’s teachings in 2017.
The broadcaster claimed the group propagated anti-national sentiment and persuaded its followers not to enlist in the army or take up government employment.
Moreover, he alleged the group’s messaging disparaged the country as a whole and encouraged members not to even partake in meals with people who were not Jehovah’s Witness members.
The broadcaster said he had brought the matter to the attention of the Jehovah’s Witness’s leadership to no avail.
Their apathy prompted him to take the extreme step to spotlight the group’s “anti-national” indoctrination targeted primarily at school children.
He also requested the mainstream media not to reveal the tricky bomb-making process, which he said could undermine State security if it fell into the “wrong hands”.
K. Sreekumar, Jehovah’s Witness spokesperson, told television journalists in Ernakulam that the person who surrendered at Kodakara was a former member of the prayer group.
He said the organisation promoted peace and amity and discouraged violence. Mr. Sreekumar said he was incompetent to comment about whether the person in police custody had any grouse with his former prayer group.
The police said the suspect arrived on a motorbike at the Kodakara station and patiently waited his turn to meet the station house office with scores of other petitioners.
Mr. Ajith and other senior officers questioned the “person of interest” at the Thrissur police academy guest house. An official said they were asking whether the suspect had conducted trial runs before orchestrating the actual explosion.
