US report sheds light on LLTE funds and Rajiv’s assassination

NEW DELHI, AUGUST 20: A United States select sub-committee, headed by senator John Kiri, had indicated transfer of large amounts of funds...

NEW DELHI, AUGUST 20: A United States select sub-committee, headed by senator John Kiri, had indicated transfer of large amounts of funds from the accounts of an international arms dealer to those held by persons close to the LTTE during 1990-91.

The transactions were made through the now-defunct Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) around the same period in which Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated, the Jain Commission noted in its final report. The commission had taken note of these transactions made from the accounts of arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi to persons reported to be close to the LTTE, besides the close relations Khashoggi had with the controversial godman Chandraswami.

Excerpts from the Kiri Committee report, produced in a forthcoming book Beyond the Tigers, also focus on the connection between the BCCI, several of its account holders and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the US.

Story continues below this ad

“Former CIA officials, including former director Richard Helms and the late William Casey;former and current foreign intelligence officials, including Kamal Adham and Abdul Raouf Khalil; and principal foreign agents of the US, such as Adnan Khashoggi and Manucher Ghorbanifar, float in and out of BCCI at critical times in its history, and participate simultaneously in the making of key episodes in US foreign policy, ranging from Camp David peace talks to the arming of Iran as part of the Iran-Contra affair,” says the report, as quoted in the book by senior journalist Rajeev Sharma.

The Kiri report had recommended further investigations into “the relationships among former CIA personnel and BCCI front men and nominees.” It said “many of the specific criminal transactions engaged in by BCCI’s customers remain hidden from investigation,” while pointing towards several cases of “political payoffs and bribes,” international arms deals and manipulation of global securities and commodities markets. Significantly, the report calls for further probe into “the extent of BCCI’s involvement inPakistan’s nuclear programme.”

The book, with a foreword by former CBI Director Vijay Karan who supervised the Special Investigation Team’s probe into Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, also carries several secret documents on the LTTE and threat perceptions on the late premier, including an Intelligence Bureau (IB) note on the LTTE’s contacts with CIA.

The note speaks of a coded message, dated ten months before Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, received from Kuala Lumpur from one K Padmanathan alias KP to LTTE chief V Prabhakaran. In the note, IB identified KP as “the person in charge of raising funds (for LTTE) abroad and also in charge of their hawala transactions.” It quotes the decoded message from KP as saying “my friend in America who was in touch with a CIA official contacted the latter and requested him to help us. He (CIA official) expressed that he knew what was required by us.”