Pramesh S Jain
Continue probe in the Mangaluru autorickshaw blast case,the Directorate of Enforcement (ED),Bengaluru Zonal Office,has provisionally attached one movable property in the form of bank balance to the extent of Rs. 29,176/-which was available in the account of prime accused,Syed Yasin,under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA),on Tuesday .
According to the official release,the ED initiated investigation on the basis of the FIR registered based on the complaint of K Purushottama,an autorickshaw driver, relating to explosion that took place on November 19, 2022.
The NIA took over the case under explosive substances Act,and also Offences under Section 2(1)(y) of the PMLA,2002 .
The chargesheet filed in this case reveals that the above said autorickshaw blast at Mangalore was a part of the plan of the ISIS,a terrorist organisation with the aim to spread terror and wage war against the Government of India 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,to the main accused Mohammad Shariq alias Premraj and other accused persons,to make improvised explosive device (IED)/Bomb and also arranged funds through certain mule accounts and also through crypto currencies which were at times encashed by Syed Yasin and Mohammad Shariq,through the contacts,for a commission and at some instances the encashed cryptocurrencies were routed through the fraudulently opened mule accounts in FINO Payments Bank.
In the above said manner,the amounts totalling to Rs. 2,86,008 was deposited by different crypto currency dealers in the mule accounts and Rs.41,680 was collected in cash from PoS ( contacts)agents.
The said amounts were utilized 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 Tamilnadu,Kerala and Karnataka and specifically the above said bomb was supposed to be planted at Dharmasthala Manjunatha Swamy Temple.
It had exploded in the autorickshaw as the bomb timer was set as 09 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 above said amounts had been spent for the said purposes and the amount of Rs.39,228/- seized from the bag of Mohd.Shariq at the Father Mullar Hospital by the Karnataka Police has been taken over by the NIA.
Hence, presently amount available in the bank account of Syed Yasin Rs.29,176/- has been attached and the accused are in Judicial Custody.Further investigation is under progress.
