The Sanatan Sanstha office bearer killed in Goa last week while allegedly trying to plant bombs at Diwali celebrations is believed to have been in touch with one of the six Sanstha activists arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad last year in connection with a bombing plot on the outskirts of Mumbai, Goa police said today. But the Hindu group strongly denied that it had anything to do with the blast even as it admitted that the men accused of transporting the bombs were linked to the outfit.

Goa police said the man killed in the blast, Malgounda Patil, was also suspected to have been in his home district of Sangli in Maharashtra last month when it was hit by communal trouble over the depiction of a Shivaji cut-out during the Ganesh festival. He had also allegedly evaded Goa police when they sought information about the activities and funding of the Sanstha ashram in Goa a few weeks ago.

“Malgounda Patil was in touch with Vikram Bhave before the latter was arrested in the blast cases in Maharashtra,” Ravindra Yadav, Goa DIG, told The Indian Express. “Both knew each other while working for the organisation. The ammunition used and the modus operandi was very much similar to that in Thane, Vashi and Panvel.”

Goa police sources said that the origin of the gelatin sticks used last week had been traced to Suraj Explosives Ltd, a Nagpur-based company, and a team was in Nagpur to investigate who had bought them.

The Maharashtra ATS had arrested Sanstha members Ramesh Hanumant Gadkari, 50, and Mangesh Dinkar Nikam, 34, in June last year in connection with crude bombs planted at auditoria in Thane and Vashi which were hosting a Marathi play the Sanstha had criticised. They were also suspected to be behind a small blast in February 2008 in a Panvel theatre screening Jodhaa Akbar.

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