Days after arrest, DRDO scientist tries to kill self

A senior DRDO scientist, who was arrested for “planting explosives to kill his neighbour” inside the Rohini court recently, allegedly attempted to kill himself by allegedly consuming a toxic liquid substance while he was in police custody, officials said on Sunday.

According to the police, accused DRDO scientist Bharat Bhushan Kataria (47) was arrested for allegedly planting an improvised explosive device (IED) in a tiffin box with an intention to kill his neighbour in the Rohini district court earlier this month.

Kataria was questioned by the special cell unit of the Delhi police on Friday and subsequently arrested on the same day, the police said, adding that he was in police custody since then and was being interrogated.

However, on Saturday night, the accused allegedly consumed some liquid handwash inside the washroom and was later found lying unconscious. When asked, he complained of vomiting and stomach ache, following which he was rushed to Baba Saheb Ambedkar hospital here from where he was referred to AIIMS Hospital, a senior police officer said.

“When police personnel went to check on him at the hospital, he told them that he didn’t consume anything. But we spoke to doctors and they said he had consumed handwash,” he said.

THE ACCUSED allegedly consumed some liquid handwash inside the washroom and was later found lying unconscious. When asked, he compained of vomitting and stomach ache following which he was rushed to Baba Saheb Ambedkar hospital here from where he was referred to AIIMS Hospital

“He is being treated in AIIMS and is completely stable. All his vitals are normal. A senior doctor will also be checking on him on Monday. He is expected to be discharged and will be interrogated soon,” he added.

Kataria, a resident of Ashok Vihar phase-I, had a grudge against his neighbour Amit Vashistha, which prompted him to plan the blast, the police had said.

The IED that triggered a low-intensity explosion in courtroom number 102 on December 9 had left naib court head constable Rajeev injured.

Teams from the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) and the National Security Guard (NSG) had visited the site of the explosion and had found that the materials used in making the IED were easily available in the market.

The IED was not properly assembled owing to which only the detonator exploded, the police said.

After the incident, a case under Section 307 (attempt to murder) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 3 of the Explosive Substances

Act was registered, the police said.

The bag used to place the IED was tracked to a medical equipment making multinational company and its distributors were interrogated.

During investigation, it emerged that one Anil Kataria, the brother-in-law of the accused, was a director of sales and marketing in the same company which distributed bags identical to the one used to conceal the IED.

Mr Anil had given some of these black bags to his relatives, including Kataria, the police said.

Based on CCTV footage and eyewitness accounts, several people present in the court complex were identified and Kataria’s name came up, the police said.