Police in the Indian state of Kerala have stepped up surveillance around a tech entrepreneur after reports linked him to a company named as an intermediary in the shipment of booby-trapped pagers that exploded across Lebanon this week, local media reported.
The blasts occurred in devices used by members of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, which was blamed on Israel and killed at least 12 people and injured about 3,000. Israel has not commented on the attack.
It is unclear how the pagers were rigged with explosives, although the search for their origin has led to Taiwan, Hungary and Bulgaria. The pagers bore the branding of Taiwanese manufacturer Gold Apollo, which said it had licensed production of that model to a company called BAC Consulting in the Budapest, Hungary. The owner of BAC Consulting, Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono, told NBC News on Wednesday that her company worked with the Taiwanese firm but that she had nothing to do with the making of the pagers. The search widened to Bulgaria on Thursday after the Hungarian news site Telex reported that the sale was facilitated by company called Norta Global in the Bulgarian capital Sofia, citing sources.
Norta Global was founded by Rinson Jose, 39, a Norwegian citizen originally from Kerala, according to Reuters. The IT professional moved to Europe a few years ago and lives in Oslo. He started the company in Sofia in 2022. It provides wide-ranging services including consulting, technology integration, recruitment and outsourcing, according to information on its website before it was deleted.
Bulgarian's Interior Ministry and state security services started an investigation into a company for possible ties to the pager deal, according to Reuters, which quoted local media reports as saying that Norta Global had enabled the sale of the pagers to Hezbollah.
However, on Friday, Bulgarian state security agency Dans said that the pagers used in the blasts were not “imported, exported or manufactured” in Bulgaria.
It added that the company and its owner had “not carried out any transactions linked to the sale or purchase of the merchandise” or that “fall under laws on terrorism financing”.
But since Mr Rinson's name has emerged, police in his home city of Wayanad have increased surveillance around his parents' home, the Indian Express reported.
His relatives said that Mr Jose had been unable to be contacted since Thursday but insisted that he would “not be part of any wrongdoing”.
“We speak daily over the phone. However, for the last three days, we have had no contact with Jose. He is a straightforward person, and we trust him fully,” a relative named Thankachen told Indian news wire IANS.
Mr Jose last visited his home in November last year and returned to Norway in January, his relatives said.
