Bengaluru, Aug 6 (IANS) The National Investigation Agency (NIA) said on Wednesday in its official statement that the autorickshaw blast which took place in communally-sensitive Mangaluru city in Karnataka was a part of the plan of the terrorist organisation ISIS.

The Enforcement Directorate initiated an investigation into the blast case on the basis of the FIR registered by the Kankanady police station in Mangaluru on the complaint of K. Purushottama, an autorickshaw driver, relating to the explosion that took place on November 19, 2022, at about 4:40 p.m., at the rear side of his autorickshaw.

Later, the FIR was registered by the NIA.

The official statement by the NIA said, “The charge sheet filed in this case reveals that the autorickshaw blast at Mangaluru was a part of the plan of the ISIS, a terrorist organisation, with the aim to spread terror and wage war against the Indian government and to threaten the integrity and sovereignty of India.”

“Investigations conducted revealed that the ISIS online handler named ‘Colonel’ had given training over Wicker app/Telegram etc., to the main accused Mohammad Shariq alias Premraj and other accused persons, to make improvised explosive device (IED)/bomb. He also arranged funds through certain mule accounts and also through crypto currencies, which were at times encashed by Syed Yasin and Mohammad Shariq, through point of sale (PoS) agents, for a commission, and at some instances the encashed cryptocurrencies were routed through the fraudulently opened mule accounts in FINO Payments Bank,” the NIA added.

In the above manner, the amounts totalling to Rs 2,86,008 was deposited by different cryptocurrency dealers in the mule accounts and Rs 41,680 was collected in cash from PoS agents, the central probe agency said.

The said amounts were utilised for purchase of the items online to assemble the IED and for hiring hideouts in Mysuru city and other places and also for conducting recce at various places in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka and specifically the above said bomb was supposed to be planted at Dharmasthala Manjunatha Swamy Temple, it added.

“The bomb had exploded in the autorickshaw as the bomb timer was set as nine seconds instead of 90 minutes. One other accused person namely Maaz Munir was the person, who provided the details of the above said FINO payments bank mule accounts to Mohammad Shariq to receive the various payments sent by the online handler Colonel,” the NIA said.

“The above said amounts had been spent for the said purposes and the amount of Rs 39,228 seized from the bag of Mohammad Shariq at the Father Mullar Hospital by the Karnataka Police has been taken over by the NIA. Hence, currently amount available in the bank account of Syed Yasin i.e., Rs 29,176 has been attached. At present, all the above said accused persons are in judicial custody,” the NIA added.

The ED’s Bengaluru Zonal Office has provisionally attached one movable property on August 5 in the form of bank balance to the extent of Rs 29,176, which was available in the account of Syed Yasin, one of the main accused in the Mangaluru autorickshaw blast case, under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, the statement said.

Further investigation in the matter is underway.

–IANS

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