5 May 2001

RAJIV GANDHI ASSASSINATION CONSPIRACY HATCHED FROM MALAYSIAN SOIL?

From Our Delhi Bureau

NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has spread its dragnet to Malaysia to track down Kumaran Padmanabhan alias KP, the absconding kingpin in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, and his associates in an attempt to unearth the conspiracy hatched to bump off the former Prime Minister in May 1991. It suspects the conspiracy was masterminded from Malaysia in tandem with the self-styled godman Chandraswami.

The investigating agency is understood to have approached its counterpart in Malaysia, seeking cooperation in the investigations by recording statements, seizing statements of bank accounts of the suspects and other documents and nabbing KP if he were still hiding anywhere in Malaysia. A "Letter Rogatory" (request letter) has already gone to the Malaysian Government in this regard, the CBI sources said.

It is, however, not known if Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee embarking upon the Malaysian tour from May 13 has been briefed about the CBI investigations in Kuala Lumpur and presence of large number of the LTTE operatives in Malaysia who continue to have hatred towards India since the time Rajiv Gandhi had sent Indian Peace Keeping Forces (IPKF) to help the Srilankan Army fight back the LTTE.

The 46-year old KP, cleanshaven but sporting moustaches as per the CBI's file picture, is a close associate of the Srilanka-based LTTE chief V Prabhakaran and chief procurer of arms and ammunitions, explosives, telecommunication and military equipment for LTTE. He had set up a shipping company at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in the eighties in the name of Vikram Holdings Private Limited to transport the material to the LTTE through sips from Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Cyprus, Thailand, USA and France.

The CBI, which heads the Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA) set up in December 1998 to probe the role of certain suspects identified by the Milapchand Jain Inquiry Commission in the assassination conspiracy, is pinning hope on a breakthrough if it is able to get any solid proof about a plethora of material in its possession about KP's links and activities.

KP's CONSPIRACY ROLE: In a case prepared for pursuing the Malaysian angle to the conspiracy, the CBI says: "Investigation conducted by the MDMA indicates that Kumaran Padmanathan alias KP was aware of the preparations being made by the LTTE for the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi and he was also participating in the said preparations." All that the CBI now needs is concrete evidence to substantiate its investigations.

The CBI has already succeeded in getting death penalty to four and life imprisonment to three others in the assassination case but the mystery of the hidden hand behind the LTTE conspiracy to kill Rajiv Gandhi remains unresolved and the CBI officials believe that KP holds the key to unravel all those who may have participated in hatching the bloody conspiracy.

The only difficulty that the CBI confronts in tracking down KP is that he never remains stationed at any place for long period and moves around with many pseudonames like T S Kumaran, S Kumaran, Shanmugam Kumaran Padmanathan, Sadasivam Padmanathan, Selvaraja Padmanathan, Kanakapillai, Kaludai, Kutti, Periya Dorai and Tharmalingam Shanmuganataham Kumaran.

He also holds a number of passports and these include two issued by the Indian Government bearing different names. The CBI sources disclosed that one of his Indian passports No E-277582 is in the name of Selvaraja Padmanathan while he managed to get another Indian passport No E-432432 issued to him by the Indian High Commission in London in the name of Tharmalingam Shanmuganathan Kumaran. The number of two other Sri Lankan documents of KP available with the CBI are Passport No. J-803500 and ID No 550971231-V.

The last Malaysian address that the CBI possesses in its records is Tingkat 3, Block C8, Jalan/Taman Tunku, Bukit Tingkat, Kuala Lumpur. The CBI is trying to find out details of the present occupants of the premises and their relationship with KP as they may reveal if he has been visiting the place. The CBI has also sought details of property owned by KP in Malaysia.

It also wants the Malaysian authorities to investigate whether T S Kumaran whose known address in Kuala Lumpur is Lot 592, 5th floor, P.O. Box 469, Wisma, Central Jalan, Ampang 50450 was KP or someone else and whether he had stayed in India at any time during 1990-1991 and if so the address in India and his contacts in India, besides his passport details and the bank transactions made between January 1987 and December 1992.

CHANDRASWAMI: The prime suspect whom the CBI is trying to nail down by nabbing KP or at least establishing his links is Nemi Chand Jain, who was once a globe-roaming self-proclaimed godman styling as Chandraswami running a South Delhi-based Ashram in the name of Vishwa Dharmayatan Trust as the Jain Commission had wanted the investigating agency to probe his international connections and huge funds he collected from abroad in a suspicious manner.

It may be mentioned here that on the specific recommendation of the Jain Commission which inquired into the conspiracy angle,  the financial transactions having connection with Chandraswami are being investigated by the CBI as Justice Jain had said in his report that these transactions may have "the possible bearing on the larger criminal conspiracy pertaining to assassination of Rajiv Gandhi."

SUSPICION: The CBI's theory is that "some of the staunch foreign contactmen of Chandraswami "such as Adnan Khashoggi (arms dealer of USA), Ernie Miler (of Canada), Akbar Jaffar Ali Veerjee (of UK), Mohd Ismail (also of UK), etc. might have overtly/covertly assisted the godman in the conspiracy by arranging/ channelising funds to further the cause of LTTE."

The CBI has also furnished details of the bank accounts held by KP in the name of T S Kumaran like Account No 058948 with Citi Bank of Malaysia as also Citibank of Kuala Lumpur and Penang and another account No 04002277 held by Uthaman P R Chettier with the United Malayan Banking Corporation, Berhad in Kuala Lumpur.

The CBI sources said the Malaysian authorities have been urged to investigate source and mode of receipt of funds in these two particular accounts as they "may lead us to the accounts of other organisations of LTTE/co-conspirators whose funds may have been used for arranging purchase of arms and ammunition/ communication equipments used by the accused persons involved in the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi." The CBI's charge is that "there are reasons to believe that huge funds from the aforesaid accounts of the LTTE activists were transferred or made available to Kumaran Padmanathan alias T S Kumaran and other co-conspirators for terrorist activities."

MYSTERIOUS PHONE CALLS: The CBI also wants the Malaysian authorities to investigate 34 phone calls made to various telephone numbers in Malaysia by T Jayadevan, an associate of KP, from Excelsior Hotel, Singapore, where he had booked in from May 10, 1991 to May 20, 1991 but suddenly disappeared from the hotel. The last two phone calls to a mobile and a stationery number in Malaysia were made on May 20. The assassination of Rajiv Gandhi took place just a day later in Sriperimumbudur in Tamil Nadu on May 21 and hence the CBI hopes these phone calls may have been for activating the assassination conspiracy from Malaysia.

Jayadevan is a Srilankan running Petro Gas Asian Express Group from Singapore and is believed to have helped KP in procurement of arms, ammunition and explosives. He has an information office in London in the name of MEEISA. "Jaidevan had reportedly spoken in 1987 about eliminating Rajiv Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India for sending IPKF to Sri Lanka," says one of the CBI documents on him.

The CBI has also forwarded three Malaysian addresses and phone numbers, including one of R Chelliah, found in the possession of LTTE activist O Sundaram during raid on his Chennai residence after Rajiv Gandhi's assassination. It wants the Malaysian authorities to find out if Chelliah had travelled to India during the period 1989 to 1992 and the purpose and addresses of his stay in India.

It also wants to know his relationship with Sundaram of Chennai as also with KP and whether he had any financial transactions with KP or other LTTE activists by checking his bank accounts. His association or dealing with the Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, canadian businessman Walter Ernie Miller, Chandraswami and K N Aggarwal alias Mamaji have also been sought. The CBI has also demanded a printout of the incoming and outgoing calls of Chelliah's telephone and fax numbers for the period January 1990 to December 1991.

BANKS AND SHIPPING COMPANY: The CBI is confident that the present whereabouts of KP can be traced by ascertaining the business activities of his shipping company, Vikram Holdings, that he had floated in Malaysia, though it is not sure if the company would be still in existence as the hardened criminal like KP who keeps changing his own name was capable of dumping one company and floating another to suppress all traces that may trap him. The CBI has sought details of arms and equipment bought by KP during 1987 to 1991 or the arms shipments transported through Malaysia during the period.

While furnishing the bank account numbers of KP and his associate Uthaman P R Chetteir, who may even be his yet another name, the CBI has sought to find out if there were any transactions in these accounts relate to Chandraswami, his aides Mamaji and Vikram Singh, Vishwa Dharmayatan Trust that runs his Delhi Ashram, arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi or 15 other individuals and organisations. END