Mangaluru (Karnataka): In the Mangaluru autorickshaw blast case, the police are probing the accused person's financial transactions to further unearth the terror plot even as the Karnataka DGP Praveen Sood said the case will be formally handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) soon.
State Home Minister Araga Jnanendra Wednesday visited the blast spot on the outskirts of the city, along with Sood, and also the hospital where the auto driver Purushottam Poojary is being treated.
Addressing reporters, Jnanendra said the blast accused Mohammed Shariq had visited different places like Coimbatore and Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu and an investigation is on. Various police teams have been formed and sent to different places as part of the probe.
Sood, who was also present, said the NIA and central agencies were part of the investigation from day one of the blast, and added that the case would be formally handed over to the central agency soon.
"They will take over the case (formally) at an appropriate time. But let me clarify that NIA and other central agencies are involved in the investigation of the case from the beginning. All the agencies work together. However, formally the case will be taken over (by NIA) at an appropriate time," the DGP said.
Sood said that financial transactions in such cases are key and the police were probing that angle as well. "Some person who is not well off, who is travelling to all these places and collecting all the things, there will be some source of finance, we are investigating into that as well," he said.
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Asked why Sharif was let go in 2020, the DGP asked the media to "respect the judiciary that in its wisdom have given bail to him even though it was opposed."
To mention, Shariq had previously been booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in 2020 for putting graffiti on walls in Mangaluru. He was out on bail in the case and was also absconding in another terror case.
The DGP said that the accused had been radicalised since 2019 and was under the police radar. "Somewhere during that time, he changed his identity and stayed in such a manner that it did not bring suspicion even to the house owners," (sic) he said.
The accused Shariq, a B.Com graduate, boarded an auto rickshaw, inside which the blast occurred around 5 pm Saturday. He got into the auto with a pressure cooker fitted with a detonator, wires, and batteries. The autorickshaw caught fire after the blast. Though police initially suspected it was a tyre blast or a technical glitch, the evidence at the site of the blast led to further investigation.
