Thai Police denies arresting Rajiv Gandhi's killer

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT: The Thai Police have now said that they have not detained Padmanathan (above).

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New Delhi: Even as the CBI awaits a formal response from Thailand about the detention of top LTTE financier Kumaran Padmanathan, conflicting reports have emerged over whether Padmanathan has actually been detained by the Bangkok Police.

The Thai Foreign Ministry, police as well as intelligence sources there are now dismissing earlier reports of his arrest.

"I have checked with related police bureaus — the Immigration Police, the Metropolitan Police and the Special Branch — and there has been no report of a Tiger rebel arrested in Bangkok," National Police Spokesman, Lieutenant-General Ronnarong Youngyuen was quoted by agencies as saying.

"If we had arrested him, we would have made good publicity out of it," he was further quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, the CBI has put in a formal confirmation request to the government of Thailand.

"The CBI has requested the government of Thailand, though diplomatic channels, to confirm Padmanathan's detention. We will also request the Interpol in Bangkok to confirm the same to us. We have not got any response as yet," said CBI Director, Vijay Shanker.

The Sri Lankan Defence Ministry site at www.defence.lk said "reliable sources from Thailand reveal that LTTE's chief for cross border terrorist activities, Kumaran Padmanadan — wanted for the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 — had been detained on the basis of an Interpol red corner notice.

However, Thai Police now say that the last time an LTTE member was arrested in Thailand was in 2003 and he was extradited to Sri Lanka last month.

Intelligence sources, on the other hand, say Pathmanadan has been travelling in and out of Thailand, where he's married to a Thai woman.

KP, as he is often called, is the man behind the international weapons network of the LTTE and was operating from Bangkok as the outfit’s financier. He was detained a few hours ago and is being interrogated by the Thai police.

Pathmanathan is reportedly a good friend of LTTE supremo Prabhakaran and had allegedly procured the explosives belt used to assassinate Rajiv Gandhi.

Sources also say Padmanathan has a number of aliases, has bank accounts in London, Frankfurt, Denmark, Athens and Australia and has over 200 passports for use.

Correspondent of Singapore daily, Straits Times, Nirmal Ghosh told CNN-IBN that there was a good chance of KP being arrested.

"We have two options. First is that there has been no arrest. The second is that he has been arrested, but that there is a timeline between detention and the announcement in cases of such importance," he said.

WHO IS KP?

K P was born on April 6, 1955 at Myliyddy near Kankesanthurai, Jaffna and is said to be related to Prabhakaran. His original name is Dharmaligam.

He graduated in arts from Jaffna University. He is not married.He is in possession of one Sri Lankan and two Indian passports.

He holds a Sri Lankan passport No J-803500 and Sri Lankan Identity Card No 550971231-V. He holds two Indian Passports - No E 432432 in the name of Dharmalingam Shanmugham Kumaran.

This passport was issued from London on Aug 9, 1989. The other Indian passport used by him is in the name of Selvaraja Padmanabhan. The number of this passport is E-277582.

K P has been active in India since 1983, during 1983 he was arrested for smuggling gold worth Rs 40 lakhs from Singapore to Bombay, in collusion with Vakil Kandasamy.

Two close associates of K P in India were Eason Singapore and Kumar. Eason was arrested in 1991, January, by local police and is presently lodged at Vellore jail.

Vakil Kandaswamy was another close associate of KP who had been used by K P for smuggling gold from Singapore and arranging LTTE members in going abroad on forged travel papers.

During May 1991, K P was reported to be in India. On May 26, 1991 - five days after Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination - K P reportedly left for Bangkok from Mumbai.

K P being the sole procurer, transporter and supplier of arms, explosives and communication equipments for the LTTE, appears to be the prime suspect in this case who would have supplied the explosives used for the assassination, the AK47 and 9mm pistol used by Sivarasan and the wireless sets used by Sivarasan, Kanthan, Dixon and others.