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Minister: Centre asked NIA to probe M’luru auto blast
A senior police officer said Karnataka police have begun the work to transfer the case to the central agency. While the investigation into the blast will be taken over by NIA, Karnataka police will continue the probe the leads found during the investigation about the suspect’s associates
Bengaluru: Karntaka home minister Araga Jnanendra on Friday said the Centre has directed the National Investigation Agency to probe the Mangaluru blast case based on the state government’s request.
In a statement, Jnanendra said the state government had recommended an NIA probe into the cooker bomb blast in a moving autorickshaw, which the Union ministry of home affairs accepted and ordered a probe by the premier investigation agency.
“With regard to the incident that occurred within the Kankanadi police station limits, the state government had taken a decision to recommend an NIA probe based on the evidences and other information collected during the preliminary investigation,” the home minister said.
In the order, which Jnanendra’s office shared, under secretary in the home ministry Vipul Alok said: “The Central government is of the opinion that a scheduled offence under the NIA Act, 2008, has been committed and having regard to the gravity of the offence and its repercussions on national security, it is required to be investigated by the NIA in accordance with the NIA Act, 2008.”
“Now, therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred under sub-section (5) of section 6 read with section 8 of the NIA Act, 2008, the Central government hereby directs the NIA to take up investigation of the aforesaid case,” the order said.
A senior police officer said Karnataka police have begun the work to transfer the case to the central agency. While the investigation into the blast will be taken over by NIA, Karnataka police will continue the probe the leads found during the investigation about the suspect’s associates.
Meanwhile, Union minister of state for agriculture and farmers’ welfare Shobha Karandlaje on Friday said the Mangaluru blast accused had got ‘Islamic State training’ and had imparted the same to more than 40 people.
Terming the information available about the blast accused Mohammed Shariq (24) as scary, she said the accused came out on bail in the anti-India graffiti case because an intense investigation did not take place. “He (Shariq) had given training to more than 40 people affiliated with Islamic State. There is information that he himself got ISIS training,” Karandlaje told reporters.
According to her, the suspected cooker bomb that exploded in a moving autorickshaw was meant for targeting the Kadri Manjunatha Swami Temple in Mangaluru.
A senior officer supervising the case however said that police have not found any evidence supporting the claims made by the minister. According to the officer, police are currently probing Abdul Matheen Taha, who is suspected to be a close associate of Shariq. “When we probed Taha’s background he was part of Al-Hind, which is a local organisation inspired by the Islamic State. But there is no evidence suggesting that he had any direct links to IS. He was mostly using material available on the internet,” the officer said on the condition of anonymity.
The officer, however, said that two persons have told police that Shariq had motivated them to carry out an attack and tested a bomb in Shivamogga district. “Apart from these two men, we are not aware of anyone trained by Shariq,” the officer added.
The officer also said the claims that the target was the temple in Kadri can’t be taken at face value. “… it is a very simple reason. He was staying in Mysuru and it is easy to reach Kadri from Mysuru but he went to Mangaluru, which doesn’t match up. Let the police investigate,” he added.
A day after the blast in Mangaluru, which took place inside an autorickshaw and injured the driver and the bomber Shariq, state police chief Praveen Sood had declared the incident an “act of terror with the intention to cause serious damage”.
On Sunday police identified Shariq as the bomber. According to police, videos on how to make a bike bomb, and cooker bomb have been recovered from Shariq’s phone. The investigation pointed out that that the nature of the IED shows that the group didn’t have large funding or support. Police identified the material used to make the IED has potassium chlorate, which is used to manufacture match boxes and crackers.
The police have recovered 150 matchboxes, sulphur powder and gunpowder from the house the alleged bomber Mohammed Shariq stayed in, in Mysuru. There was a time delay mechanism of a washing machine commonly available in the market, used in the bomb.
