Confession or confusion?

Out on conditional bail, Sea Tiger suspect Bhageerathy Murugesu says she's divorced from LTTE financier husband Samraj:

By Manjula Fernando

Bhageerathy Murugesu. Pic: Internet

The LTTE Sea Tiger suspect Bhageerathy Murugesu alias Mila, 42, was apprehended by Terrorism Investigation Department officers at the BIA on March 2, while she was about to catch a flight to return to France. Her daughter, Phagalvi was with her at the time and during the ten days of interrogation by the TID officers, Phagalvi was allowed to be with her mother.

Consular assistance

The French Embassy provided consular assistance to her since the child is a French national by her birthright. Senior Counsel Thavarasha said French Embassy officials have fielded concern about her education during the extent of the hearing since the child is conversant only in French.

Bhageerathy has said she is unable to find accommodation in Colombo, where French medium schools are found.

Bhageerathy who was granted conditional bail by the Colombo Additional Magistrate Aruni Artigala recently, claimed she was no longer married to her husband, a member of the top-rung leadership of the LTTE's international financial wing, known by the nom-de-guerre Samraj.

The duo had married in 2005 with the backing of the LTTE and proceeded to France to function as LTTE international wing operatives, the Terrorism Investigation Department offices informed Court when the case was taken up on March 13.

Divorce claim

It was not clear if her divorce claim was corroborated by documentary proof. The lawyer looking into her interests, Senior Counsel K.V.Thavarasha said the Attorney General's Department consented to her release on conditional bail.

Bhageerathy's husband or ex-husband Sivasubramaniam Jayaganesh as she claims was a top LTTE financier who is wanted by Sri Lanka.

As per the three conditions of Bhageerathy's bail, she is required to report to a police station every fortnight between 9 am to 12 noon, her passport was impounded and she is not allowed to leave the country until the case is over.

She was imposed a surety bail of Rs.200,000 which was paid by her brother.

The woman was arrested by the police at the BIA on March 2 under the Terrorism Prevention Act of 1979.

Residing

She had been residing in France since 2005 and the purpose of her visit to Sri Lanka beginning from February 9 with her eight- year- old daughter, was to see her mother who is a cancer patient and is in Kilinochchi, Thavarasha said.

He said sleuths have questioned her in Kilinochchi at her mother's residence, days prior to her departure, but no attempt was made to arrest her then.

According to the B report submitted by the TID, the suspect woman had joined the LTTE in 1991 and received weapons training.

She had worked as a communications officer for four years before her elevation to the naval wing of the Tigers in 1996.

When she married Samraj and migrated to France in 2005, with the blessings of their superiors in the LTTE to take over a section of its international operations, she was serving as a leader of the sea tiger women's wing.

Samraj currently manages some 200 service stations worldwide that are owned by the LTTE as well as a number of supermarkets in Thailand and England in addition to a stainless steel manufacturing plant in the Ivory Coast, the investigation officers said. An intelligence source said, the objective of Samraj's dispatch to France was to build up an arms procurement network for the LTTE.

He was a close aide of Castro. “The man was sent off and expected to report to Castro, as Castro did not trust KP in handling the finances alone."

Samraj had allegedly worked with Nediyavan who managed LTTE overseas branches with diaspora Tamils.

While Nediyavan based in Oslo, raised funds all over the world by numerous unscrupulous means, Samraj had spent money buying weapons.

He worked with international arms dealers and purchased arms to be sent to Sri Lanka. His tasks included investing money overseas in safe places to generate more funds.

After the LTTE's defeat, the finances controlled by Samraj remained with him, KP was not allowed access to them.

Revive

Subsequently his role swapped and he began working with Nediyawan to revive the LTTE.

His recent activities have been traced to funding youth events and demonstrations in Jaffna.

According to a 2013 report sourced to the Defence Ministry Samraj is part of the Combatants and Criminal faction of the LTTE's international wing which is responsible for fundraising for the outfit via criminal and illegal activities such as money laundering, arms and drug dealing and human smuggling.

The activities of this group have begun in early 2010s. His team members are Vinayagam, a senior intelligence cadre who managed to escape during the last stages of the military operations which wiped out LTTE in Sri Lanka, as well as Achchudan and Shankar.

The next hearing of the case is scheduled on May 19.