Accused in Mangaluru cooker explosion case gets 10 years RI

Bengaluru: Special NIA court on Monday convicted Muhammad SharikThe main accused in the 2022 Mangaluru pressure cooker blast case has been sentenced to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 94,000 under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and IPC. Sharik pleaded guilty in December last year and is currently lodged in Bengaluru Central Jail. On November 19, 2022, an IED inside a pressure cooker exploded in an auto-rickshaw in Kankanady area of ​​Mangaluru, injuring passenger Shariq and driver Purushotham Poojary. The NIA said Shariq had originally planned to plant a bomb at the Kadri Manjunatha temple to stoke communal tensions, but the bomb exploded prematurely due to a mix-up in timer arrangements and he set the timer for the bomb to explode for nine minutes instead of 90 minutes. Special public prosecutor P Prasanna Kumar told TOI that besides gathering evidence against Shariq, they also questioned 45 witnesses. Realizing “a tight case” had been made against him. Sharik pleaded guilty to the charges.