Rinson Jose, a businessman of Indian origin from Wayanad, Kerala, has been has been linked to Hezbollah pager explosions in Lebanon, which resulted in the deaths of 12 people and numerous injuries, DNA reported.
According to reports, Norta Global, a company owned by Jose based in Bulgaria, was involved in supplying the pagers.
Originally from Wayanad, Kerala, Rinson Jose moved to Norway several years ago for higher studies, later working briefly in London before returning to Oslo.
Speaking to the news agency IANS, Jose’s relatives mentioned that he currently resides in Oslo with his wife and has a twin brother living in London.
“We usually speak daily, but we haven’t been able to reach Jose for the past three days. He is a straightforward person, and we have complete trust in him. He wouldn’t be involved in any wrongdoing; he might have been caught up in these blasts,” a relative of the 37-year-old said on Friday.
Thankachen, another relative of Rinson Jose, expressed concern over the family’s inability to contact Jose’s wife in recent days. “We haven’t heard from her either,” he added as per the report.
The explosions in Lebanon, which utilised explosive pagers, resulted in numerous casualties. Media reports have connected Rinson Jose to the incident, alleging his company, Norta Global, was involved in supplying the explosives.
Established by Jose in April 2022 and based in Sofia, Bulgaria, Norta Global reported a revenue of $725,000 (approximately Rs6 crore) for consulting activities outside the EU last year.
According to AFP, Rinson Jose’s LinkedIn profile indicates he also worked for nearly five years in digital customer support at the Norwegian press group DN Media.
Contrarily, Bulgaria’s state security agency, DANS, reported on Friday that the pagers used in the Lebanon explosions were neither imported, exported, nor manufactured in Bulgaria. They stated that neither Jose’s company nor its owner had conducted any transactions related to the sale or purchase of such items that would fall under terrorism financing laws.
