Hubli: 'The target was SIMI'

Investigations being conducted into the Hubli bomb blast case has now revealed that the main accused, Nagraj Jambagi, wanted to target members of the Student's Islamic Movement of India who were to be produced before the court in Hubli.

For Nagarah Jambagi, a member of a Hindu outfit in Karnataka, it was an operation gone wrong. He had planted the bomb in the court premises in May 2008 on the election day in Karnataka.

Police sources told rediff.com that he had taken advantage of the fact that the security was concentrated more on the elections and moreover it was a Sunday and the court premises was empty.

Nagraj reportedly said that the bomb was planted on a Sunday and was scheduled to go off on Monday when several arrested SIMI members would be produced in the court. However the bomb accidentally went off on Sunday itself.

Apart from this Nagraj had also planted three bomb on the National Highway in Dharwad later during the same year. However this bomb too failed to explode thanks to incessant rains.

For Nagraj Jambagi the latest face of terror in Karnataka planting bombs was not the only agenda. During his confession he said that he wanted to become a don with the help of seven of his gang members.

In his confession, he says that that he planned to abduct the Bagalkot MLA's  grandson and extort money. He also confesses that he had plans to assassinate Sathish Jarkiholi, an MLA and his brother.

He further states that he had formed a group called as the Tiger's Gang and planned to kill prominent personalities so that he would become a noted name.