New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached the money lying in the bank account of the 2022 Mangaluru bomb blast accused, who allegedly used to receive funds from his ISIS handler.
The bank account was used to allegedly fund various nefarious activities such as online purchase of items to assemble an Improvised Explosive Device (IED), hiring hideouts in Mysuru city as well as in conducting reconnaissance of different places in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka, an ED spokesperson said Wednesday.
At one time, the account received more than Rs 3 lakh of which the terror module had spent more than Rs 2 lakh. It was part of the overall funds passed on to terror accused Mohammed Shariq and his aides, including Syed Yasin, the ED spokesperson said.
The account came under the ED lens after the Karnataka police booked Shariq alias Premraj, a resident of Shivamogga district, for orchestrating an IED blast near Kankanady railway station in Mangaluru on 20 November, 2022.
From the spot, the local police had found a pressure cooker, 9-volt batteries and circuits generally used for assembling IEDs. In the further course of investigation, chemicals, mechanical tools and electrical items—required to assemble IEDs—were seized from Shariq’s rented accommodation in Mysuru.
Days later, the case was handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA). In its charge sheet, the NIA submitted that Shariq was on the way to plant the IED concealed in pressure cooker outside Manjunatha temple in Dharmasthala.
However, the IED went off because the timer was set at nine seconds instead of an initially planned time of 90 minutes, leaving Shariq with 40 percent burn injuries.
All these accused are in judicial custody and are now facing trial.
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A couple of months before the blast, the Shivamogga police booked Shariq, Yasin and Munir Ahmed alias Maz on the charge of hatching a conspiracy to spread the ISIS ideology.
The trio, according to the FIR, was working to bring Sharia law as they believed India never really got independent. The trio had stored explosives and exploded a bomb outside Yasin’s house in Shivamogga, it added.
The NIA registered a case on 15 November, 2022—five days before the Mangaluru IED blast mistakenly triggered by Shariq.
An ISIS handler with the pseudonym ‘Colonel’ radicalised the trio along with at least nine other youth from across Karnataka and gave them instructions through applications such as Wickr and Telegram on how to assemble IEDs, according to the counter-terrorism agency.
The handler, it said, had also trained them online on carrying out reconnaissance of sensitive targets such as power sub-stations, railways, telephone access points, as well as business and industries belonging to individuals of the Hindu community.
The handler had arranged payment channels through cryptocurrency, which were sold and deposited into mule bank accounts opened with Fino Payments Bank, the NIA alleged.
Through the same method, the accused received Rs 2.86 lakh, while funds amounting to Rs 41,680 were collected in cash from PoS (Point of Sale) agents. The money was used to purchase items online to assemble the IED, for hiring hideouts in Mysuru city and other locations, and also for conducting reconnaissance in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka, the NIA said.
The police seized Rs 39,228 in cash from Shriq’s bag when he was admitted to a hospital after being injured in the IED blast. The remaining Rs 29,176 in Yasin’s bank account was disabled on the ED’s instruction.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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