Sofia connection: Kerala man under scanner for Lebanon pager blasts

KOZHIKODE:A Wayanad native, who briefly trained to be a man of the cloth before turning to more worldly pursuits and migrated to Scandinavia in search of greener pastures, has emerged as an alleged link in a sensational sabotage that saw hundreds of pagers explode in Lebanon on Tuesday.
The pager blasts, which targeted terror group Hezbollah’s fighters, killed 12 people, including civilians and a couple children, and wounded dozens. Norta Global Ltd, based in Sofia, Bulgaria allegedly owned by Rinson Jose (37) of Wayanad, a Norwegian citizen is being probed by international security agencies following reports linking it to the sale of hundreds of pagers.
Last spoke to family 3 days ago Central intelligence agencies and Kerala police special branch on Friday collected details about Rinson from his native place Ondayangadi near Mananthavady in Wayanad. Wayanad district police chief Taposh Basumathary said police had done a normal background check on Rinson.
Family at Ondayangadi says Rinson would do no wrong
Now that the identity and details of the family have come out in the media, police have taken steps to ensure they are safe. We are patrolling the area,” Wayanad district police chief Taposh Basumathary said.
Family sources said Rinson, son of Moothedath Jose and Gracy who used to work as tailors, had gone abroad with his twin brother, who is now working in the UK. Rinson’s sister is a nurse in Ireland. He had been living in Norway with his wife and had last come home in November 2023 and returned in January 2024. “Rinson last spoke to his family here three days ago and they couldn’t contact him over the phone since. We tried calling Rinson’s wife on Friday as well, but no one attended the call. The news reports about him are unbelievable; he could also have been deceived,” Rinson’s uncle Thankachan told TOI. Is Norta Global linked to pagers’ purchase?
Hungarian media reported that Sofia-based Norta Global had facilitated the sale of the pagers. The firm’s website which described it as a leading technology company with a strong focus on consulting, technology and payment integration, recruitment and outsourcing has been taken down now.
However, Bulgaria's State Agency for National Security (SANS) said on Friday that Norta Global and its owner had “not carried out any transaction linked to the sale or purchase of the merchandise” or that which “falls under laws on terrorism financing”. Reuters had reported on Thursday that Norta's Bulgarian headquarters was registered at an apartment building near Sofia that was also home to nearly 200 other companies, but there was no sign of Norta.
Reuters said Rinson declined to comment on the pagers when reached by phone and hung up when asked about the Bulgarian business. Amund Djuve, CEO of DN Media, where Jose currently works, told Reuters he was aware of the reports and had alerted police and security services. He said that Jose was travelling to the US. Oslo police said it had initiated "preliminary enquiries into the information that had come to light”. Norway’s domestic intelligence agency, PST, said it was aware of the situation and declined to comment further, Reuters reported.
According to Rinson’s LinkedIn page, he has been working in the Oslo-based DN Media Group in Norway for nearly five years and was involved in leading digitisation, automation, and growth across multiple brands/publications. Besides mentioning him as an entrepreneur running NortaLink, an IT service, consultancy, procurement, and recruiting company from 2016 onwards, it identifies him as co-founder of an IT recruiting and business development firm and IT recruitment firm StarCruiter. Rinson had pursued a master’s in international social welfare and health policy at Oslo Metropolitan University from 2012 to 2015. The profile also claims he was general secretary of International Students Union of Norway (ISU) for one year from Sept 2012.
The quiet boy who could do no wrong
Back home at Ondayangadi, residents of the area said they knew Rinson as an upright person, while his shocked family members said they were sure he would not do anything wrong. Rinson’s uncle Thankachan said Rinson studied at Ondayangadi school, following which he went to a seminary for one year and later continued studies in Wayanad and Bengaluru. He had worked at a call centre in Bengaluru and taken an MBA from Pondicherry in 2010, before heading to Norway for higher studies. He said he didn’t know of Rinson owning a company there. "He was an employee at an organisation... The family is not that well off. His father and mother used to work as tailors at Mananthavady, and even now they do tailoring work at home,” he said.
Thankachan also said Rinson had struggled hard financially during his student days. “It was a local priest who helped him go to college. After going to Norway, he had taken up part-time employment like newspaper delivery and also at a care home. You can ask anyone in our church diocese and no one will say anything bad about him.”