MADRAS: The former Tamil Nadu home secretary, R. Nagarajan, Saturday accused the DMK chief, M.Karunanidhi, of extending all possible help to the LTTE during his regime. “As a civil servant acted on his orders,” he said in a 16-page statement recorded before the Trichy judicial magistrate, Manoharan.
The former home secretary is believed to have named a former minister in the Karunanidhi cabinet, a Rajya Sabha member belonging to the DMK, and some police officers in connection with the DMK nexus with the LTTE.
He is reported to have alleged that Karunanidhi had turned down Nagarajans official advice that he should extend a homecoming reception for the IPKF in Madras two years ago. The former chief minister had boycotted the IPKF reception alleging excesses on Tamils in Sri Lanka…
Nagarajan was arrested under TADA on November 21 for allegedly having instructed the police not to chase the assailants of the EPRLF leader, K.Padmanabha, and 13 others, who were gunned down in Madras in June last year by an LTTE hit squad. Nagarajan was alleged to have given similar instructions following a shoot-out in February last year, in which some fleeing LTTE men killed a policeman at a security check post near Ramanathapuram.
Meanwhile, Karunanidhi Saturday issued a statement threatening an agitation, if the government did not suspend the use of TADA in a vindictive manner against Jayalaithas political adversaries. Karunanidhis statement came amid persistent speculation about the impending arrest of some political leaders, including the DMK chief himself.
Earlier, the DMK had decided to organize statewide meetings from December 6 for three days in a bid to mobilize public opinion in support of the party resolution condemning the government for misusing TADA.
Meanwhile, the state Q branch police is likely to move the designated court constituted under TADA for issuance of a proclamation against five activists of the LTTE-trained Tamil National Retrieval Troops (TNRT) asking them to surrender before the court, according to Q branch police sources.
The sources said they had made all out efforts to nab the five activists Guna alias Gunasekara of Palani, Sukumar alias Kumar of Udumalpet, Periyannan alias Kumar of Ponneri, Meyappan alias Suresh of Coimbatore and Arumugam of Varapalayam village near Dharapuram.
A special police team went to Bangalore on information that they were hiding there. But the five who were eluding the police dragnet for the past two months had again given a slip.
The sources said the Q branch police had so far arrested 15 TNRT activists in different parts of the state. The TNRT men who are now under custody have confessed that some local political leaders had continuously patronized them.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 6, 1991
