Bengaluru: Miscreants set visa office on fire, police rule out terror angle

Bengaluru: Unidentified men set fire to the office premises of a visa processing agency at the Mittal Towers on MG Road by throwing in a kerosene bottle and setting it on fire on Sunday night. The miscreants also left an image that was downloaded from the internet of an Islamic prayer, to make it appear as a terror attack, the police said.

The fire services were not alerted as there was only minimal fire and negligible damage and there were no casualties. The staff present at the building doused the fire. The jurisdictional police were informed immediately and they rushed to the spot and took up the case. They have taken the issue seriously as it involves a visa application processing office and an image of an Islamic prayer left at the spot.

The police have detained some suspects who were staff members of a different firm from the same building for questioning over the incident.

“It is a visa processing agency and they process visa of different countries including Israel. The agency only collect applications and process them before they send it to the consulate,” a senior police officer said. “On Sunday night, unidentified men threw a kerosene bottle near the door of the agency and set it on fire. They also left an image that was downloaded from the internet of an Islamic prayer at the spot before they fled the spot,” the senior police officer added.

A similar incident had happened on August 2 last year at the same office, but then no image of the Islamic prayer left at the spot, the police said. Police officers who rushed to the spot and conducted preliminary investigations found out that the owner of a data processing centre for a private bank operating in the same building had issues with the members of the Mittal Towers Association and other few individuals in the building.

The police suspect the incident could be a handiwork of the employees of the data processing centre or anyone close to the owner, said police sources. “We have taken up a case and detained few suspects. We are questioning them and further investigations are underway,” said Satheesh Kumar, Deputy Commissioner of Police, East Division.

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