'LTTE was trying to kidnap Lankan Tamil leader'

One of the main missions of the key functionary of the banned LTTE, who was arrested along with seven Sri Lankan nationals in Chennai on Thursday, was to kidnap rival group member and Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) leader Varadaraja Perumal and his family next month.

Sources in the 'Q' Branch Police, which effected the arrest, claimed that with the arrest of LTTE's Intelligence wing member Thambidurai Parameswaram alias Nathan alias Suruli, the outlawed organisation's bid to kidnap the EPRLF leader and his family, based in India, has been foiled.

Varadharaja Perumal and his family were scheduled to participate in a wedding in New Delhi next month and Thambidurai had been planning to kidnap them, sources said.

Using his job of a taxi driver as a decoy, Thambidurai had been staying in the city for the last one year, and was gathering intelligence inputs about the movement of Varadharaja Perumal.

Sources said Thambidurai had befriended family members of Varadaraja Perumal and had even convinced them to hire his vehicle, purchased with the help of hawala money sent by the LTTE, for the wedding, to execute his kidnap plan.

As Varadharaja Perumal daughter's wedding was planned in the middle of next month, Thambidurai had planned to accompany the EPRLF leader's parents to New Delhi from Chennai.

Thambidurai said he was functioning as per the directives from his boss and senior LTTE Intelligence member Sanjeevi Master, who is second in the hierarchy after LTTE Intelligence wing chief Pottu Amman.

LTTE had even planned to eliminate Varadharaja Perumal in New Delhi, the sources, quoting preliminary investigations, said.

EPRLF leader Padmanabha was assassinated at Kodambakkam in Chennai in 1990 by the LTTE.

Apart from watching the movements of Varadharaja Perumal, the other missions of Thambidurai, who had sought the support of seven Lankan Nationals to aid his operations, included gathering reports about Sri Lankan Minister Douglas Devananda, a member of the Mahindra Rajapakse ministry, and his personal assistant Yogaraj, and to procure and supply war materials like iron balls, plastic granules to the LTTE through Rameswaram coast off Tamil Nadu.

Thambidurai, in fact had even managed to recruit a city-based person in Douglas Devananda's office to know about his movements, the sources added.

Meanwhile, the 'Q' Branch had planned to take Thambidurai into police custody for detailed interrogation.