Tamil Nadu police bust LTTE cell, murder plot in India

The Tamil Nadu police have claimed to have thwarted an assassination bid on Indian soil, arresting eight Sri Lankan nationals, including a key member of the LTTE's intelligence wing, from suburban Madipakkam. Their target, according to the police, was the rival group member and Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) leader, Varadaraja Perumal, who has been living incognito in India since the Tigers put him high on the hitlist.

Perumal has been an LTTE target ever since he accepted the Indian offer to be the Chief Minister of the first Tamil Provincial Council in Northeast Sri Lanka headquartered at Trincomallee after the Indo-Sri Lanka accord of 1987. He is said to be living in exile somewhere in North India while his family chose to be in Chennai.

The first-known assassination by the LTTE in India was that of the EPRLF leader Padmanabha. Thirteen leaders were also mowed down in the EPRLF headquarters in Chennai in June 1990. A year later, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a woman suicide bomber during an election meeting in Sriperumbudur.

The Q Branch of the TN Police, that deals with extremists, said that Thambidurai Parameswaran alias Nathan alias Suruli, the LTTE's intelligence wing member, arrested on Thursday, had been operating as a taxi driver in Madipakkam for about a year. He gathered intelligence about the EPRLF leader's whereabouts and movements, to plan his kidnap and possibly to assassinate him. The EPRLF has been preparing to participate in the local body election in the Eastern Province in Sri Lanka."Perumal's daughter's wedding is being planned sometime this month or the next in New Delhi and he and his family members are expected to participate. Thambidurai had planned to accompany Perumal's parents to Delhi from Chennai," said a Q Branch source. Thambidurai had befriended Perumal's family members and had even got close enough to them to suggest they use his Tavera, purchased with hawala money sent by the LTTE, during the wedding.

During questioning, Thambidurai apparently admitted that he had been operating on instructions from senior LTTE intelligence wing leader Sanjeevi Master, second in hierarchy after Pottu Amman.

Seven other Sri Lankan nationals who were arrested along with Thambidurai had been used by him to gather intelligence about Sri Lankan Minister and leader of the Eelam People's Democratic Party, Douglas Devanands, who used to be a frequent visitor to Chennai. Douglas, a member of the Mahindra Rajapaksa ministry, has escaped at least a dozen assassination bids by the LTTE.

Thambidurai had instructed the seven men to keep a watch on the movements of Douglas's PA Yogaraj, besides helping him procure iron balls and plastic granules to be smuggled to the LTTE through Rameswaram. Police said Thambidurai had managed to 'plant' a man in Devananda's office in Chennai to get information about his movements. All eight men were remanded to judicial custody and lodged in a prison here.

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