CBI arrests Sri Lankan Tamil on the run for 18 yrs

CHENNAI: The special crime branch of CBI today arrested a Sri Lankan Tamil, John Prabhakaran, who has been wanted in two fake passport cases. The
man with suspected links with LTTE has been absconding for nearly 18 years.

The SCB officials, after entering Prabhakaran's name in the wanted list in 1991, arrested him from Chennai on Monday. He was remanded in judicial custody. Interestingly, the CBI notice against Prabhakaran did not have his photograph or any of the physical description about the person. Neither his age nor his nationality were mentioned in the notice, which only talked about the offences he committed.

The CBI has filed two chargesheets against Prabhakaran, who according to CBI sources had entered into a criminal conspiracy and obtained passports in the names of fictious persons. Prabhakaran then manipulated the particulars in the original passports and subsituted photographs in the original passport for later use.

He had been providing fake passports to his associates for illegal migration, when the movements of Sri Lankan Tamils were monitored closely by the Indian authorities following the assasination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. CBI officials had seized several such passports, created and manipulated by the accused. Though CBI could arrest some of his associates, they could not pick up Prabhakaran.

Prabhakaran had been operating from Chennai and also from other parts of Tamil Nadu with a strong network in Sri Lanka. CBI officials, however, have not disclosed his present activities and what he has been doing while on the run.

praveen.kumar8@timesgroup.com


Times of India