Arrest at Cochin airport: police probe LTTE links
May 19, 2011 07:14 am
The Crime Detachment Wing of the Aluva Rural Police in India has launched an investigation into the antecedents of a suspected former LTTE combatant who was arrested from the Cochin International Airport.
Jeevadass Marimuthu, 30, hailing from Jaffna in Sri Lanka, was detained by immigration officials while attempting to board an Oman Air flight to Muscat. He was found possessing an Indian passport with his name as Peter Savari Muthu, Tiruchi, Tamil Nadu.
Jeevadas said he had been on his way to Paris seeking political asylum. He confessed to obtaining the travel documents from a passport agent in Tamil Nadu.
Official sources said the investigating officials had taken him to a hotel in Kochi where he stayed on Tuesday and collected evidence. Investigation was also on to trace Guna, the Tiruchi-based agent who had given him the passport, and another person in Kochi who accompanied him to the airport.
Jeevadass had worked in an artificial limb-making factory owned by the LTTE in Jaffna and left for India a couple of years later. For the last few months, he had been living with his relatives at a refugee camp in Tamil Nadu.
On questioning, Jeevadas said he chose Kochi as the transit point from India on instruction from his passport agent.
Meanwhile, the incident has raised suspicion among the authorities that Kochi is being used as a safe exit point to Europe by the former LTTE militants.
In July last, a Sri Lankan national identified as Nandakumar of Jaffna was arrested while attempting to board an international flight with a French passport. On interrogation, he said he had been on his way to Paris to join his maternal uncle and also confessed to obtaining the document from a passport agent in Tiruchi, The Hindu reports.
