When a Bengaluru constable helped India's most wanted terrorist

On 17 April 2010, a Bengaluru constable spotted two men near some bushes outside Chinnaswamy Stadium at 4 am On questioning, one of the two spoke broken Kannada and asked for directions to the ticket booths. An IPL final was to be held there.  The helpful constable gave them the directions and moved along. Hours later, one of the two blasts that rocked the stadium occurred at the exact same spot  The two men, as it later turned out, were Yasin Bhatkal a.k.a Mohammed Ahmed Siddibappa and Qatil Siddiqui - among India's most wanted terrorists

Sometimes, giving a helping hand might prove a crucial mistake. Bengaluru constable G Lakshmikantha learnt that lesson when he inadvertently gave helpful directions to two men he spotted outside Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru in the wee hours of 17 April, 2010. 

The two men were Yasin Bhatkal a.k.a Mohammed Ahmed Siddibappa and Qatil Siddiqui. While Siddiqui has since been murdered in a Pune jail, Bhatkal is currently on trial for his alleged role in at least six terrorist strikes, all via bombs, across India. 

Bhatkal was born in Karnataka's Bhatkal town in 1983. According to police reports, he studied engineering later but began his education in a madrassa. He is accused of being the former head of the terrorist organisation Indian Mujahideen (IM). The many hideous crimes he is charged with include the serial blasts in Ahmedabad in 2008, which killed some 50 people, three blasts in Mumbai in 2011, which killed 20 people, a blast in Pune in 2010 that killed 17 people and blasts in Hyderabad in 2013 which killed 19 people. 

Perhaps all those killed in the blasts post-2010 - Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad - could have been saved had the constable been a little more suspicious. Speaking to Bangalore Mirror, here's what Lakshmikantha shared - 

At around 4 am on the morning of 17 April, the constable was doing his assigned rounds in Chinnaswamy Stadium. The IPL final was scheduled to be held in the stadium in the evening. He spotted two men near some dense bushes that surround the stadium perimeter, trying to peek into the compound. They were wearing old school bags on their bags. 

Assuming them to be sandalwood smugglers, the constable laid a hand on the 'heavy bag' and questioned the men. As it turns out the terrorists held their nerve, coolly asking the constable in broken Kannada about where they could buy tickets for the match. 

The pre-dawn queuing up of fans for limited tickets is a common enough sight across India, wherever a famous cricket match is being held, and the helpful constable gave them directions on how to go to the Queens' Road ticket booth. 

He thought nothing more of the incident until 2.50 p.m., when two low-intensity blasts rocked Chinnaswamy, one of the which occurred at the exact spot where the constable had spotted the two men. Thankfully, a few more bombs - bigger, more powerful and packed with ball bearings to maim innocent cricket fans - did not go off. Police recovered them later. 

Years later, after Yasin was caught and put on trial for his murderous activities, the testimony of Constable Lakshmikantha has become crucial, as an eye witness who can place Bhatkal and Siddiqui at the scene of the crime. Lakshmikantha identified Yasin through a photograph earlier. 

There is other evidence as well. Unexploded bombs recovered in both Bengaluru and Surat (where some 18 were recovered in 2008) were all encased in boast shaped containers, which is considered a signature move by Yasin Bhatkal. Also one of the bombs recovered in Bengaluru contained a hair, which DNA testing proved belonged to Siddiqui. 

Yasin is currently in Delhi's Tihar jail, facing trial in several terror cases. A Hyderabad High Court has already sentenced him to death for his role in the 2013 blasts. His trial for the Bengaluru blasts is ongoing.