Police drill exposes major security loopholes at Dagdusheth temple

Police personnel and private security equipped with security gadgets such as metal detectors failed to stop the man, who was armed with a firearm. Also, the staffers at the temple failed to check a bag in his possession that carried a dummy bomb.

DCP (zone I) M B Tamabde told The Indian Express that the drill was conducted by the ATS and local police.

After the decoy carrying a gun reached the temple, he was frisked by the security personnel. He also passed through the metal detectors. But still he was not stopped from entering the temple.

The decoy was present in the temple for nearly 40 minutes. As per the instructions received from police, the decoy spoke over phone and moved around on the temple premises. However, no police or private security personnel and staffers in the temple nabbed him. The temple is equipped with CCTV cameras. However, those monitoring the cameras did not find anything suspicious. Meanwhile, the sleuths also placed a bag carrying a dummy bomb at the spot where belongings of devotees are collected by temple staffers. Nobody in the temple raised any doubts about the bag.

After the drill, cops pointed out the security lapses to the police and private guards present at the temple. The ATS also submitted a report on the drill and security lapses to the Vishrambag police.

It may be recalled that intelligence inputs have repeatedly warned of terror attacks at the Dagdusheth Halwai Ganesh temple. On July 10, terror suspects carried out a bomb blast in Faraskhana and Vishrambag police stations, located a few feet distance from the temple. Probe revealed that members of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), who fled from Khandwa Jail in Madhya Pradesh in October 2013, had carried out the terror attack, which left five persons injured.

Also, Indian Mujahideen operative Qateel Siddiqui had allegedly carried explosives to the Dagdusheth Temple on February 13, 2010, the same day when the German Bakery blast took place. But Qateel allegedly backed off due to heavy police presence and after a flower vendor asked him to take back his bag that reportedly carried explosives. Siddiqui had later thrown the explosive in the sea in Mumbai.
Siddiqui was murdered by gangster Sharad Mohol on June 8, 2012 in Yerawada Jail.