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LTTE all set to exploit Jain Commission's ATR

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam will plead not guilty in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case before the international community.

This follows the Action Taken Report of the Jain Commission probe into the case which has called for a further inquiry into the "roles" of several Indian politicians.

Speaking to this corespondent over the telephone from the LTTE's London office, spokesman Antony Raja said, "Since the Indian government's own inquiry commission has pointed the needle of suspicion at several Indian politicians, the LTTE cannot be accused."

The ATR, tabled in Parliament last week by the BJP-led coalition government has called for a further probe against Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK chief M Karunanidhi, Janata Party president Dr Subramanian Swamy and the jet-setting self-styled tantrik Chandra Swami, for which a special team would be set up by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Antony Raja said "the Tigers will plead in US courts that the organisation is fighting a fierce legal battle against the American ban on the LTTE." Raja said the case is on in the US federal court, and the ban had come following India labelling the organisation as a terrorist group and banning it.

Following India's ban on the LTTE, the US too banned the organisation. While no case against the ban has been made out in India, a battery of lawyers are defending the LTTE in the US courts.

The LTTE's strategy is three-fold: Apart from pleading not guilty before the international community, the militant group would also plead against banning it in various European countries. The UK and France have not banned the organisation and hence the LTTE's offices in London and Paris are still functioning as a vital link for the Tigers in Europe and the West.

This apart, the 26 accused sentenced to death by a special Indian trial court would also make a similar plea before the Supreme Court which is scheduled to hear their plea against capital punishment on August 25.

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