The prime accused in the cooker bomb blast case in Mangaluru has been shifted to a hospital in Bengaluru on the advice of authorities and the doctors treating him. Mohammed Shariq was taken to Victoria hospital in the state capital at 6 am on Saturday, December 17, police sources said. The accused had suffered 45% burns after the explosive he was carrying in a pressure cooker exploded in an auto rickshaw at Nagori on the outskirts of the city on November 19. 

The autorickshaw driver, who was also injured in the blast, is being treated in Mangaluru. A little-known outfit called the Islamic Resistance Council (IRC) had later owned responsibility for the blast, and warned of another attack on their darknet. The National Investigation Agency (NIA), currently probing the case and its link with terrorist activities, have already questioned him at the hospital in Mangaluru.

Earlier in November, a taxi driver claimed that he spotted a person resembling Mohammad Shari at the Isha Yoga centre in Coimbatore during Deepavali. However, investigators have expressed doubts about the veracity of the claim. The statement was given to the Coimbatore police on November 24 by 45-year-old Anandan who works as a taxi driver.