Arresting Padmanabhan alias KP, who handles the LTTE's Overseas Department for clandestine operations, besides managing its highly complex and secretive shipping network, may not be difficult, as, ``he does not lead a guerilla's life, travels extensively, mostly by air. And he is not known to carry a cyanide capsule,'' says Rajeev Sharma, author of `Beyond the Tigers: Tracking Rajiv Gandhi's Assassination.'

Sharma says pellets of two-mm diametre found from the belt-bomb worn by assassin Dhanu were found to have been manufactured in Singapore, and quotes intelligence reports as saying that KP was in the State (Tamil Nadu) during the relevant period.

After the assassination on May 21, 1991, ``KP was reported to be in Pakistan, where heremained for quite some time. It is highly unlikely that KP would have no involvement with the case. His actual role is in the realm of speculation only because the Singapore trail has not been investigated to the hilt,'' he says.

The book claims that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which probed the assassination, ``possessed powerful indicators to prima facie suggest KP's involvement in the assassination and yet did not chargesheet him.''

The book was published when the government was gearing up to constitute the Multi-disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA) to probe the leads thrown up by the Jain Commission of inquiry which investigated the murder's conspiracy aspect.

The author says KP, ``is one of the few LTTE cadres who are militarily untrained'', carry forged passports of about 20 countries and have many aliases.

He says KP has ``access to dozens of bank accounts around the globe. He also possesses an impressive paraphernalia for forgingdocuments.''

Sharma claims KP ``has been feeding the LTTE war machine with such aplomb that the Special Weapons and Explosive Procurement Department of the LTTE is better known as `KP Department'.

``Like him, all LTTE cadres working for him are untrained. This helps a great deal because there are virtually no records of KP's men in the files of security and intelligence agencies worldwide,'' Sharma says.