Panaji Archive

Panaji, Oct 25 – More than a week after two activists of Hindu group Sanatan Sanstha (SS) were killed in an explosion while ferrying bombs to a crowded locality in South Goa, a senior police official has said there was ‘something wrong’ with the right wing organization’s ideology.

Speaking to a local cable news channel, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of police R.S. Yadav said the SS needed to rework their ideological make up in a democratic set up.

‘There is something wrong with the ideology of the organisation. On the one hand, they talk of spirituality and contentment and god, then how come their activists indulge in terrorist acts,’ Yadav asked.

Yadav also questioned the teachings carried out at its ashram by the SS, whose members were earlier caught while attempting to carry out blasts in Navi Mumbai, Thane and Panvel last year.

‘What kind of teaching is being done there? What kind of indoctrination is it? You can see for yourself,’ Yadav said.

Since the Diwali eve blasts, the Goa police have studiously maintained that the role of the SS in the blasts was not clear and that prima facie investigations showed that SS members alone had carried out the blasts.

The questions Yadav raises questioning the very ideology of the SS are a fresh departure from earlier police statements on the issue. Yadav is supervising the Special Investigation Team, which has been appointed by the state government to probe the blast.

No arrests have been made so far in connection with the blast.

Panaji, Oct 23 – With police continuing to grope in the dark a week after the low-intensity blast pre-Diwali blast in Goa, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Manohar Parrikar Friday said time was running out for the ‘incapable’ cops and called for a CBI probe.

The leader of opposition met Governor S.S. Sidhu Friday to formally seek a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the blast, which killed two persons. He told reporters that the improvised explosive device (IED) blast could have multi-state ramifications.

‘The persons against whom the case has been filed have both died. The police have been able to make absolutely no headway in their investigations. The state police are incapable of handling a blast case investigation with multi-state ramifications,’ Parrikar said.

‘The BJP wants the police to get to the bottom of the matter. If any organisation is involved, they should be punished, even if it is the Sanatan Sanstha,’ the former chief minister said.

In a letter submitted to the governor, signed by the legislative wing of the BJP, Parrikar said: ‘The reputation of the state as a safe tourist destination had severely eroded, causing serious repercussions on the economy of the tourism industry and the state as a whole.’

The letter lists a range of law and order issues, which the BJP claims are an indication of the worsening security scenario. It includes the Diwali eve blast, improper handling of British teen Scarlett Keeling’s murder, a recent spate of 10 murders in 48 hours and 25 incidents where places of religious worship were either broken into or desecrated.

Sanatan Sanstha members Malgonda Patil and Yogesh Naik were ferrying an IED on a two wheeler last Friday when the explosion took place in Margao, 35 km from here. Both were killed.

Three other IEDs, two of which were found near the blast site and the other about 30 km away near Vasco, did not go off.