New Delhi: Sri Lankan national Letchumanan Mary Franciska and others arrested on allegations of being members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had received Rs 1.66 crore as “seed and sustenance” funds from a Denmark-based cadre of the banned outfit, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) prosecution complaint has said.
These funds were allegedly sent for meeting the operational costs of the cadre in Tamil Nadu, which had been conspiring to siphon off Rs 42.28 crore from a dormant bank account in Mumbai. The siphoned-off money was planned to be spent on reviving the defunct outfit, the ED has further claimed.
From the “seed and sustenance” funds, the cadre, including Franciska, handed over two post-dated cheques of Rs one lakh each to retired Additional Judge of the Madras High Court, Justice N. Kannadasan, according to the findings of the ED. Kannadasan allegedly handed over one of the cheques to his junior associate, G.V. Bharathy, but he could not withdraw the amount as the cheque bounced due to a lack of balance in the account.
The ED has not charged retired Justice Kannadasan with an offence due to insufficient evidence. ThePrint reached Kannadasan for a comment, but he denied to give any over a phone call.
The ED documented all the alleged financial dealings in its prosecution complaint filed before a Chennai court earlier last month.
The agency’s money laundering probe stems from an investigation initiated by the Tamil Nadu Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and later conducted by the National Investigation Agency. The probe aimed to uncover attempts to revive the LTTE by siphoning off from dormant accounts.
The NIA had named Umakanthan, a Denmark-based former cadre of the banned outfit, as the mastermind behind the plot. It claimed that Umakanthan sent Franciska to India to siphon off Rs 42.28 crore lying idle in a dormant bank account in the name of the late Hamida A. Lalljee at the Indian Overseas Bank’s Mumbai branch. Hamida’s son, Iskandar Altaf Lalljee, is Joint Managing Director of Sud-Chemie India Pvt. Ltd. (SCIL).
According to the NIA probe, Umakanthan joined the LTTE in 1992 and had arms training at the Tamil militant outfit’s Jaffna base for three months. Then, he was allegedly posted in the LTTE political wing in Jaffna, and also became a part of the outfit’s assault on the Sri Lankan army and naval bases in Pooneryn in November 1993. In 1997, Umakanthan, according to the NIA, travelled to Chennai for treatment for a bullet injury. Two years later, he was allegedly lodged at the Chengalpattu Special Camp for Sri Lankan Tamil refugees.
The NIA claimed that Franciska, acting on Umakanthan’s directions, created a power of attorney to take control of Hamida A. Lalljee’s inactive account. She was instructed to route the Rs 42.28 crore from the bank account to Umakanthan. However, she was arrested by the Tamil Nadu CID at Chennai airport on 2 October 2021 when she was about to take off for Bengaluru. From there, she was allegedly to go to Mumbai to produce forged documents and withdraw funds from the bank.
After her arrest, six more people, including T. Kenniston Fernando, K. Baskaran, C. Johnson Samuel, L. Chellamuthu, G. Dharmendiran, E. Mohan, and G.P.N. Bharathy, were arrested. The NIA chargesheet, however, did not name G.P.N. Bharathy and Chellamuthu due to a lack of evidence. The ED, though, has charged Bharathy for indulging in a money laundering offence.
Cash withdrawals, foreign funds & failed conspiracy
The ED, in its probe, has identified a Chennai-based Sri Lankan businessman, K. Baskaran, as the linchpin of the cadre working in Chennai. It allegedly found his firm, Anas Enterprises, receiving several foreign remittances from Agna Global Solutions LLC between May 2020 and December 2020. Nearly Rs 80 lakh was deposited into the firm’s Yes Bank account, while Rs 86 lakh was received in foreign remittances in its IndusInd Bank account.
Confronted with the inflow of foreign funds, Baskaran told ED sleuths that he had rented commercial office space to Agna Global Solutions for which his firm had received rental income. However, the ED relied on the purpose code generated in each foreign remittance to claim that the flow of funds into his accounts had not been rental income, but funds routed for logistical and administrative expenses of co-conspirators.
According to the ED’s investigation, Franciska’s visa expired in December 2020. But by then, she had fraudulently obtained all Indian identification and residential documents, including an election ID card, Aadhaar, and a PAN card. Umakanthan and Baskaran, as part of the conspiracy, informed Franciska of late Hamida A. Lalljee’s dormant account at the Indian Overseas Bank, Fort Branch, Mumbai. According to the probe, Fernando assisted Franciska in opening her own account to facilitate her interactions with the bank staff. This allowed her to obtain information regarding the late Lalljee’s account.
In the next leg of the conspiracy, Franciska allegedly obtained and executed a fraudulent power of attorney, allegedly adjudicated by retired Justice Kannadasan. She then approached the bank manager to access Hamida’s account. Franciska, in her statement to the ED sleuths in September last year, allegedly confessed to having handed over two post-dated cheques of Rs one lakh each to Kannadasan’s junior associate Bharathy.
However, her plan was thwarted by the bank managers, who informed her that the account was held jointly by the late Hamida A. Lalljee with her son, Iskanthar A. Lalljee, and her daughter, Arshia A. Lalljee. The latter had to be present for access to the account. Upon learning this, Franciska allegedly approached Johnson Samuel, an advocate practising at Chennai’s Egmore Court. She asked him to procure fraudulent Indian Aadhaar and PAN cards in the name of Shri Iskanthar A. Lalljee.
For this, Franciska made an initial payment of Rs 30,000 to Samuel, who further arranged for another accused, E. Mohan, to impersonate Iskandar A. Lalljee at the agreed-upon price of Rs 3,000, according to the ED’s probe. For perfect impersonation, Samuel and one Dharmendran trained Mohan to speak in Hindi and use the phrase, “Mera naam Iskandar A. Lalljee”, the ED has allegedly found. Overall, Samuel was allegedly promised 10 percent of the Rs 42.28 crore.
“Further, Smt Mary Franciska voluntarily confessed before two independent witnesses that she had agreed to pay a sum of Rs 2,00,000/- to Retired Justice Kannadasan by way of two post-dated cheques of Rs 1,00,000/- each. The said cheques were handed over to Shri G.P.N. Bharathy as blank cheques. Subsequently, Shri G.P.N. Bharathy filled in the particulars, wrote the cheques in his own name, and deposited them into his Indian Bank account,” the ED said in its complaint.
For impersonating Iskandar A. Lalljee, Mohan was supposed to travel to Mumbai with Franciska. Mohan, according to his own confession to the ED, was promised Rs one lakh upon the plan’s success. But Franciska was arrested by the Q branch, a specialised wing of the Tamil Nadu CID with a formidable history of tracking LTTE cadre, before that.
The ED, in its complaint, documented that out of Rs 80 lakh remitted into the Yes Bank account of Baskaran’s Aanas Enterprises, Rs 25 lakh were withdrawn from the account in cash. Meanwhile, Rs 50 lakh was allegedly transferred to Sri Lankan nationals as part of the plot. Out of the Rs 86 lakh credited to the second bank account, Rs 24 lakh was withdrawn in cash, the ED complaint submitted. Another Rs 62 lakh was allegedly transferred to 40 people as part of the plan.
“Statements recorded under Section 50 of PMLA, 2002, reveal the role of Shri K. Baskaran in handling, distributing, and facilitating utilisation of the said Rs 1,66,58,099. This Rs 1,66,58,099/- functioned as the seed and sustenance money for a larger terror financing design to siphon off Rs 42.28 crore from dormant bank accounts, indicating a deliberate plan to convert illicitly obtained funds into operational financing for a banned organisation, LTTE,” the ED prosecution complaint has said.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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