Panaji, Oct 21 (IANS) A top state intelligence official has admitted to a ‘communication lapse’ in monitoring the movements of Sanatan Sanstha (SS) member Malgunda Patil, who died after an improvised explosive devices (IEDs) he was ferrying exploded in south Goa on Diwali eve.
Goa police criminal intelligence department (CID) has been in damage control mode following reports of an ‘intelligence failure’ on its part, which could have averted the blast in Margao in south Goa, 35 km from here.

The IED blast killed the two bomb-carriers, associated with the SS. “It was not an intelligence failure. It was a communication lapse,” Superintendent of police (CID) Atmaram Deshpande told reporters Tuesday evening.

Intelligence agencies warned the Goa CID about the suspicious activities of Malgunda Patil, a Sangli-based member of the Sanatan Sanstha. Patil had been red flagged by central intelligence agencies after he repeatedly met Vikram Vinay Bhave, who was charge sheeted in the Malegaon blast case (2008), before the latter was imprisoned. Patil’s constant shuttling to and from the riot affected Sangli-Miraj area in Maharashtra to SS’s ashram in Ramnathi in Goa, 30 km from here, had also caught the attention of central intelligence agencies.

Deshpande, however, claims the Goa police CID had no inkling about Patil’s plans.

“That Malgunda Patil was planning the blast we did not know. In such conspiracies only core members know of such plans. It is not easy to obtain such information as a lot of secrecy is involved,” Deshpande said. He further said that “in all probability” the Goa CID were not aware of Malgunda Patil’s chequered history, until after the blast on Diwali eve.

Deshpande said that even if Patil’s movement’s were marked by the intelligence agencies in Maharashtra, it was not necessary that they passed it onto other police forces.

“If the crime is local (referring to the Malegaon blast and the Sangli-Miraj riots) then it is not necessary for the police there to pass on information to other state police agencies,” Deshpande said, referring to the possible communication lapse.

The Goa police were caught on the wrong foot after the media here published a transcript of a conversation between a Goa police CID station head and the receptionist at the SS ashram. In the transcript the officer asks for Malgunda Patil and says he knows Patil “very well”.

The transcript was published by the Sanatan Sanstha five days before the blast in which Patil was killed.

Patil and his accomplice Yogesh Naik were ferrying the IEDs on a two wheeler on Oct 16 when the explosion took place in Margao. Three other IEDs, two of which were found unexploded near the blast site and another about 30 km away near Vasco, did not go off.