We have no inputs on Headley’s Goa visit, say cops

PANAJI - There were no specific intelligence inputs that Mumbai terror suspect David Coleman Headley had visited Goa last year, a senior police official has said.

“We do not know. We have received no specific intelligence input on Headley’s Goa visit,” Superintendent of Police (CID) Atmaram Deshpande said here Monday when asked about the Pakistani-American terror suspect’s Goa links.

The senior police official’s comment contradicts numerous reports in the national media that Headley had stayed in Anjuna and Arambol for two weeks last year. The two coastal villages traditionally receive a high number of Israeli tourists.

Media reports also pointed to Headley’s association with a long-residing US national in Goa during his stay here.

Less than a month ago, state Home Minister Ravi Naik, while responding to a query from the opposition, had said about Headley’s visit: “Goa police have taken necessary note of the reports indicating visit of a certain individual to Goa. And in interest of ensuring security of information, nothing more needs to be stated.”

Naik had said in his reply during the winter session of the Goa legislative assembly that Pakistan-based terror groups were planning a spectacular act of violence in Goa.

Naik had also said during the assembly session that “the Goa police were maintaining ‘close liaison’ with central intelligence agencies as well as state police organisations concerned to ensure that relevant intelligence is shared quickly”.

Failing law and order, allegations of police officials and politicians involved in rampant drug trade, an increase in the number of crimes against women and repeated intelligence failures — one of which almost led to an attempted bomb blast by a rightwing Hindu organisation in Diwali — has put the Goa police under uneasy focus.