Panaji Archive

Panaji, Nov 3 – Goa Home Minister Ravi Naik has admitted that the Diwali eve blast in the state, in which two associates of the rightwing Hindu outfit Sanatan Sanstha (SS) were killed when the bomb they were ferrying exploded, was a result of intelligence failure.

Naik has also assured that strict action would be taken, if supervisory intelligence officials were found guilty of lapses.

‘It will not be wrong to say that the Margao blast (on Oct 16) was a result of a failure of the intelligence machinery,’ Naik told a local news channel in an interview late Monday evening.

Calling for a thorough probe into intelligence lapses, Naik also said that it was necessary to fix responsibility for the error in intelligence gathering. The lapse in intelligence had allowed two associates of SS to explode detonator-rigged gelatine sticks in Margao, a town in south Goa about 35 km from here.

Both SS associates Malgonda Patil and Yogesh Naik, who were ferrying a bomb to a crowd of festive revellers on a scooter, were killed when it accidentally exploded.

‘What we have to see is, if police intelligence officials at the ground level have submitted a report on the activities of the SS to their superiors at all,’ Naik said. ‘And then if the superior officers received the report and still ignored it, then those officials will have to be prepared to face action,’ he added.

Naik also said that the home ministry had asked the state police to closely monitor the activities of the Sanstha, which is headquartered in an ashram in the temple town of Ramnathi, 30 km east of Panaji.

‘We are monitoring all activities of the SS. All the contents of their newspaper (Sanatan Prabhat) are being regularly scanned and analysed by the police on a daily basis now. We are assessing all the information we have on the SS,’ Naik said. When asked if Goa was planning to ban the Sanstha, Naik refused to comment.

The police have arrested two members of the SS in connection with the blast. Both the accused Vinay Talekar, 30, and Vinayak Patil, 27, are originally from Karnataka.

Panaji, Oct 28 – It was a tip-off from a journalist that helped police in Goa arrest Ajay Kaushal, the NRI from Britain who was fleeing a 15-year sentence for assault and kidnapping, an official said.

Kaushal, 50, who is on the most wanted list of the Lancashire constabulary, was arrested Tuesday from a hotel in the coastal resort town of Colva, 40 km from here.

Kaushal’s presence in Goa was noted after the media extensively reported the death of his companion William Scott, 39, a Scottish national who was found mysteriously dead in his hotel room.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Atmaram Deshpande said that an email written by a journalist to the South Goa district SP Allen D’Sa had alerted the police about Kaushal’s identity. ‘A member of the media informed the police,’ Deshpande told IANS.

The email had details of Kaushal’s criminal background in Britain, which police used after corroborating information with the Lancashire police, Deshpande said, without revealing the identity of the informer.

Despite being a fugitive on the run before a Preston crown court sentenced him to 15years for kidnapping a British businessman at Burnley, Kaushal had booked himself at Colva hotel using his real identity.

‘I cannot comment much about that. But Kaushal had visited Goa once before. And this time he had a visa issued from our Thailand embassy,’ Deshpande said.

The British embassy, he said, had been informed about Kaushal’s arrest. ‘A team from the Lancashire police or the Interpol will be here to pick him up and take him back to the UK, where he is wanted,’ the official said.

Panaji, Oct 27 – A non resident Indian (NRI) who is wanted in Britain for allegedly kidnapping and assaulting a businessman has been held here.

Deputy superintendent of police Umesh Gaonkar said that Ajay Kaushal, 50, was arrested under section 41 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) after the police contacted their counterparts in Britain and confirmed his identity.

‘We found Kaushal’s identification documents on him, which helped us confirm his identity and corroborate it with Lancashire police,’ Gaonkar said, adding that Kaushal would be handed over to the British police on their arrival.

Kaushal’s arrest was accidental. His companion, a 39-year-old Briton William Scott, was found dead in a hotel room in the resort village of Colva, 40 km from here. The hotel authorities had reported Scott’s death to the police, and the authorities were alerted to Kaushal’s identity while investigating that death.

Kaushal is listed on the Lancashire police website as a wanted man.

Kaushal, who used to live in the Stretford area in Manchester, is accused of kidnapping a British businessman at Burnley some six years ago. According to Lancashire police, the businessman was later beaten up, and then released on payment of a 100,000 pound ransom.

Kaushal was booked but failed to appear before the Preston Crown court, where he was sentenced to 15 years in prison. ‘We do believe that he has fled the country,’ said a missing persons website based in Britain.

Panaji, Oct 27 – At least three journalists are under the spotlight for their alleged role in the Diwali eve blast in Margao, say police officials investigating the case.

Two members of the rightwing group Sanatan Sanstha (SS) were killed when they were ferrying the improvised explosive device (IED) in Margao, 35 km from here, on Oct 16.

Malgonda Patil, one of the SS activists who died in the explosion, was a freelance journalist, who used to contribute articles regularly to the Sanatan Prabhat, a multilingual newspaper published by the SS for over a decade.

Under the police scanner is the editor of Sanatan Prabhat, Prithviraj Hazare, who has been summoned several times to the Margao police station and the office of the special investigation team (SIT) and questioned on the role of the newspaper and the ashram and its possible links to the blast.

With him is Virendra Marathe, a former reporter with the same newspaper, and now a managing trustee at the SS ashram at Ramnathi, Ponda, about 30 km from here. Marathe, who is being regularly questioned by the police over the goings on at the ashram, was formally booked last week after half a dozen foreigners were found staying illegally at the ashram.

A third journalist who works for a leading local vernacular newspaper is also being probed as part of the investigations, said police officials.

‘Investigations after the blast showed that a Marathi journalist from Margao, also a member of the SS, had escorted Malgonda Patil around town, showing him the places where crowds were likely to assemble for Diwali festivities a couple of days before the blast,’ a senior police official told IANS.

Patil and his SS colleague Yogesh Naik were killed when they were ferrying the IED to one such site, where several thousand people had assembled to watch the ritual burning of narakasura by Lord Krishna, which is part of the traditional Diwali celebrations in Goa.

The IED accidentally exploded before they could reach the site. Police also found and defused three other IEDs on the same night within a span of one hour.

‘We are only in the process of collecting information now. Concrete action will follow only when we fit in the gaps in the investigations. Until then we have mounted surveillance on several suspects we are tracking,’ a police official said.

Superintendent of Police (CID) Atmaram Deshpande said when asked about the number of suspects under the police scanner: ‘There are suspects, but I am not at liberty to share anything about the investigations in the blast case as of now.’

SS has said that the constant summoning of Hazare and Marathe to the police station for questioning was only aimed at harassing and demoralizing the senior members of the group.

‘But we will cooperate in whatever way the police wants us to,’ an SS official said.

Panaji, Oct 25 – A 39-year-old British national was found dead in his guest house room in a popular coastal village in Goa Sunday, a police official said. The police suspect it to be a case of drug overdose.

William Kottar was found dead in his room in Colva village in South Goa, about 40 km from here.

Kottar had arrived in Goa a few weeks ago and was on a six-month tourist visa, a police official said.

‘The body would be sent for post-mortem examination on Monday and the British Consulate will be also be contacted,’ the official said.