Chennai, March 26 (BPNS)
A supporter of LTTE and an IT professional at Chennai who is under judicial custody was given under the custody of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) by a special NIA court. The NIA had requested to hand him over for custodial interrogation regarding an amount of Rs 75 lakh that was deposited in his bank account from the United States.
The NIA has also charged that he had used forged documents to withdraw money from an Indian Overseas Bank Account in Fort Branch, Mumbai for supporting the activities of LTTE.
The IT professional, Bhaskaran who was working in Chennai for the past twenty years was arrested in January 2022 after a Sri Lankan citizen of Tamil origins, Letchumann Mary Franciska (50) was taken into custody by the ‘Q’ branch of the Tamil Nadu police from Chennai airport in October 2021 with a fake Indian passport. The woman had arrived in India in 2019 on a tourist visa and stayed here citing Covid -19 reasons.
On interrogation, the Police found that she and her accomplices, K. Bhaskaran, Kenniston Fernando, Johnson Samuel, and L. Sellamuthu were arrested for forging Indian documents including Passport, Aadhaar Card, and other documents and opening multiple bank accounts to withdraw money from an Indian Overseas Bank account of Fort Branch, Mumbai. The money withdrawn was, according to Tamil Nadu police, used for reviving the LTTE operations.
While all the four are under judicial custody, the NIA requested for the custodial interrogation of Bhaskaran and the NIA special court judge, K.H. Elavazhagan for two days on Saturday and Sunday. The court also directed the NIA that there should not be any human rights violation to Bhaskaran while in NIA custody.
Bhaskaran, Mary, and other accomplices are booked under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention ) Act of 1967, Passports Act of 1967, and Indian Penal Code (IPC).
NIA in its prayer before the court said that Bhaskaran had to be in custodial interrogation to get details on the money trail in his account including deposits in his account from foreign accounts as well as on more details regarding his business partner in the United States.
