Panaji, Oct 21 (IANS) The father of the main accused in the Goa Diwali eve blast case has served a legal notice on the Goa police, demanding compensation for harassing the family by not handing over the Sanatan Sanstha activist’s body to them in time.
The notice which was served to the Margao police Wednesday, seeks Rs.20,000 as damages for the expenses incurred by the Malgonda Patil’s family, who arrived in Goa from Sangli Oct 18 to claim his body, which is still lying in the morgue.

“The relatives of Malgonda Patil, son of my client Siddhagonda Patil, had gone to collect their son’s body only after the Margao police asked them to come by calling them telephonically. But when they reached there, the police refused to hand over the body because a post-mortem (examination) had not been conducted,” Siddhagonda Patil’s lawyer V.M. Deshpande said.

Siddhagonda Patil in his legal notice has asked for Rs.20,000 as compensation for the money spent on lodging, food and hiring an ambulance during the family’s two-day stay in Goa.

Malgonda’s father has now also demanded that the police should bring the body to Sangli at the Patil home and respectfully hand it over to the family.

Malgonda Patil and his accomplice Yogesh Naik were ferrying improvised explosive devices (IED) on a two wheeler Oct 16 when the explosion took place in Margao, in south Goa, 35 km from here.

Three other IEDs, two of which were found unexploded near the blast site and another about 30 km away near Vasco, were later recovered and defused by the police.