The Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra on November 23 said that police failed to track down Mohammad Shariq, the prime accused in the Mangaluru auto-blast case, even after his name cropped up in a terror plot in September as he did not use conventional modes of communication like cell phones.

“He was not using a phone to communicate. His communications were personal in nature. Police were trying to find him but could not pick up his trail due to the efforts taken to conceal his tracks,” Jnanendra said.

Jnanendra further said that Shariq is suspected to have received guidance to execute an act of terrorism in the state. “He often travelled to Coimbatore. After he fled Karnataka (in August), he went to Coimbatore, Nagercoil, Kanyakumari, Kochi, and other places,” he said.

Shariq was released from prison in August 2021 following eight months of incarceration in connection with a UAPA case over provocative graffiti written on the wall of a police station in Mangaluru. Shariq was supposed to appear before the Mangaluru police once a week for a period of six months or till the filing of the charge sheet in the graffiti case as per a high court bail order in July 2021. However, the Karnataka Police lost track of him.

Meanwhile, Karnataka DGP Praveen Sood on Wednesday said that the state government will hand over the November 19 Mangaluru bomb blast case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) owing to its inter-state connections and the invocation of the UAPA. Sood also said that a report related to the incident was sent to the NIA through the Union Home Ministry on Tuesday evening.

Sood, along with Home Minister Araga Jnanendra, inspected the blast spot in Mangaluru on Wednesday and later held a meeting.