Sixteen years after former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was killed, Kumaran Padmanathan, the LTTE leader who allegedly financed his assassination has been arrested by Interpol in Thailand for gun-running, reports Indian news agenesis on KP arrested by Interpol on yesterday evening at Bangkok.
If extradited to India, the 52-year-old Padmanathan, also known as KP and Shanmugam Kumaran Tharmalingham, could prove to be a prized catch, with CBI an internal intelligence service in India sources claiming he would be able to unravel the conspiracy behind the assassination of Gandhi on May 21, 1991.
According to Indian Official , One Indian official said the reported arrest of KP, as he was known, was a major blow to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and would well be its worst setback since the 2004 defection of a top regional commander, Karuna.
One official described with the Media the man of middle class origin as an 'elusive pimpernel'. 'It is a body blow to the LTTE. It could cut off LTTE's arms supply lines,' he added.
'If true, it is a big blow. He was one of their key persons. It will only add to the LTTE's cup of woes,’ another Indian official told the Media.
According to the officials, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which probed Gandhi's assassination, linked the 2.4 mm Singapore Fragmentation Grenade (SFG) pellets in the suicide belt that killed the Indian leader to the highly secretive 'KP Department'.
Acting swiftly on the report of his arrest in Bangkok yesterday, the CBI sent papers to Thai authorities, seeking confirmation about the development and asking for his extradition to India to face trial. This came a day after the Sri Lankan government approached authorities in Bangkok with a similar request.
The CBI is hopeful of securing Padmanathan's extradition as it had earlier approached 23 countries, including Thailand, for sharing information about the terrorist leader, the sources said.
Padmanathan, seen as a key LTTE leader in charge of operations to procure weapons for the group, was believed to be staying in Thailand and Cambodia and allegedly running an global gun-running network.
The CBI had been on the trail of the man with a number of aliases in places like Johannesburg, Yangon, Singapore and Bangkok. KP is believed to have bank accounts in Britain, Germany, Denmark, Greece and Australia as well as dozens of fake travel documents, the sources said.
If extradited to India, the 52-year-old Padmanathan, also known as KP and Shanmugam Kumaran Tharmalingham, could prove to be a prized catch, with CBI an internal intelligence service in India sources claiming he would be able to unravel the conspiracy behind the assassination of Gandhi on May 21, 1991.
According to Indian Official , One Indian official said the reported arrest of KP, as he was known, was a major blow to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and would well be its worst setback since the 2004 defection of a top regional commander, Karuna.
One official described with the Media the man of middle class origin as an 'elusive pimpernel'. 'It is a body blow to the LTTE. It could cut off LTTE's arms supply lines,' he added.
'If true, it is a big blow. He was one of their key persons. It will only add to the LTTE's cup of woes,’ another Indian official told the Media.
According to the officials, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which probed Gandhi's assassination, linked the 2.4 mm Singapore Fragmentation Grenade (SFG) pellets in the suicide belt that killed the Indian leader to the highly secretive 'KP Department'.
Acting swiftly on the report of his arrest in Bangkok yesterday, the CBI sent papers to Thai authorities, seeking confirmation about the development and asking for his extradition to India to face trial. This came a day after the Sri Lankan government approached authorities in Bangkok with a similar request.
The CBI is hopeful of securing Padmanathan's extradition as it had earlier approached 23 countries, including Thailand, for sharing information about the terrorist leader, the sources said.
Padmanathan, seen as a key LTTE leader in charge of operations to procure weapons for the group, was believed to be staying in Thailand and Cambodia and allegedly running an global gun-running network.
The CBI had been on the trail of the man with a number of aliases in places like Johannesburg, Yangon, Singapore and Bangkok. KP is believed to have bank accounts in Britain, Germany, Denmark, Greece and Australia as well as dozens of fake travel documents, the sources said.
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