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India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is to send official requests to 17 countries, including Singapore, Germany, Australia and Sri Lanka, to probe the sources of funding for the outlawed Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a Jain Commission Report of the CBI revealed. “We are in the process of sending letters to rogatory to 17 countries to find out how the LTTE is being funded. The official requests are being processed and it would take some time,” G. Achari, a special director of the CBI has told the India Abroad News Service. It has been revealed that the LTTE has a widely strengthened network of funding in foreign countries across the world where a lot of fund raising activities are taken place behind community and cultural shows. Further, Mr. Achari said that the issue for a probe was taken up after the Jain commission in its report in 1998 highlighted the facts about LTTE funding. The countries, which would be requested to probe underworld funding of the LTTE in their territory, are Switzerland, Germany, Australia, Singapore and Sri Lanka. The Jain Commission was set up by then Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao in 1991 to probe the assassination of Prime Minister Rajeev Gandhi, who was killed on May 21, 1991 by the LTTE while addressing an election rally at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu. The commission was headed by Justice M. C. Jain, a former chief justice of Delhi High Court. With the appointment of a Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA) in 1998 the following five persons were then probed regarding the premier's assassination. These were Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, god man Chandraswami, Janata Party president Subramaniam Swami, former Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) minister Subbulakshmi Jagadeshan and the LTTE arms procure Kumaran Padmanabhan. “Apart from the funds it (LTTE) allegedly receives form the underworld, the role of Chandraswami and others is also being investigated,” Mr. Archari said. Meanwhile, a CBI team had already visited Sri Lanka last year in December, where a request have been made to the Sri Lankan Government for the extradition of absconding LTTE chief. However, CBI director R. K. Raghavan had stated that though Prabhakaran’s extradition was a long drawn process, necessary action would be taken to continue to pursue it. The Jain report had also suggested further investigation into accounts held by LTTE supporters in the now-defunct Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI).
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