NEW DELHI, October 26: India has begun a fresh hunt to trace "KP," the mysterious LTTEer who is allegedly the main financier of late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s brutal assassination more than 13 years ago.
The Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA), set up under the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 1998 to probe the conspiracy aspect of the sensational Rajiv Gandhi assassination, wants to nab "KP" to get to the bottom of the conspiracy. It consists of officials from the Intelligence Bureau (IB), Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), the CBI, the Directorate of Army Intelligence, and the Enforcement Directorate.
The MDMA has asked the government to "renew" its diplomatic efforts to track Tharmalingam Shanmugham, alias Kumaran Pathmanathan (or KP as he is colloquially known). The agency believes that KP has the key to unravel the mystery.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) will soon approach each of the 23 countries in which KP is believed to have established his network through investments in different business enterprises.
According to a senior CBI official, the countries in which MDMA has traced KP’s business interests include: Switzerland, Sri Lanka, Australia, Germany, Canada, France, Holland, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, South Africa, and New Zealand.
KP is also suspected to be the main financier of LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran, one of the main accused in Rajiv Gandhi’s murder by an LTTE woman suicide-bomber at an election rally at Sriperumbudur near Chennai, the Tamil Nadu capital, on the night of May 21, 1991.
The CBI official said: "We have already sent letters rogatory to 23 countries, seeking help to trace KP’s whereabouts. He was last seen in Sweden. We have some documents of his bank transactions in Sweden. But, before we could alert the Swedish authorities, he flew out. KP owns a number of companies, through which he is believed to finance the LTTE."
Early this month, this matter came up for discussion at a high-level meeting in the Indian Home Ministry.
Chaired by Home Minister Shivraj Patil, the meeting was specifically convened to review the working of the MDMA. It was attended by senior Home Ministry officials, Home Secretary Dhirendra Singh, and Intelligence Bureau (IB) Director AK Doval. The MDMA was given an year’s extension after the Congress Party-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government assumed office in May this year, and has been asked to expedite its work.
Two commissions of inquiry were set up to probe Rajiv Gandhi’s murder. While the Justice JS Verma Commission had probed the aspect of security lapses, the MC Jain Commission investigated the conspiracy aspect.
The Jain Commission had also recommended a further probe into several areas, like the role of controversial Godman Chandraswami and others, including some LTTE leaders, in the conspiracy. The MDMA was set up primarily to tie up the loose-ends in the wake of the Jain Commission report.
