NIA begins probe into Mangaluru blast

Three teams of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) who have arrived in the city, have started investigation into the blast in an autorickshaw in the city on November 19. Police sources said all the documents relating to the case with suspected terror links have been handed over to the NIA, which officially took over the investigation on Thursday.

The case has been handed over to the NIA as per the instructions of the state DG&IGP Praveen Sood, city police Commissioner N Shashi Kumar said.

The prime accused in the case and terror suspect Mohammed Shariq had already been interrogated by the police after his health condition was stated to be stable by the doctors, the commissioner said.


Shariq had suffered 40 per cent burns in the blast when the cooker bomb he was carrying exploded in the auto rickshaw at Nagori on the outskirts of the city.

Police sources said during questioning, it was revealed that he had received funds in his account from abroad. He had opened an account through dark web and by converting the money into rupee, he used to transfer it to different accounts, the sources said.

Police have also received information that he had credited amount to the bank accounts of many people in Mysuru. Based on this, the police have questioned over 40 persons in Mysuru, sources said.

Meanwhile, Udupi district superintendent of police Hakay Akshay Machhindra confirmed the visit of accused Shariq to the Sri Krishna mutt in Udupi in October.

He told reporters in Udupi that police have received information during his questioning and Mangaluru police had come to Udupi and held further enquiries.

Machhindra said he had held discussions with the deputy commissioner on the security to be provided to the several temples in Udupi district after the incident in Mangaluru.

A district-level coordination committee will be formed to inspect the security systems at the temples periodically, he said.