CBI seeks Pirabhakaran's extradition, sends Letters Rogatory to 17 nations on LTTE funding
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

NEW DELHI, JAN 15: A team of the Multi-Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA), set up to follow up findings of the Jain Commission report, recently visited Sri Lanka to seek extradition of LTTE chief Velupillai Pirabhakaran, accused of masterminding the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director R.K. Raghavan gave this information to newspersons here today while commenting on the progress of the MDMA's work.

He also said that the CBI had sent Letters Rogatory to as many as 17 countries to probe the foreign sources of funds for the LTTE. The countries included Switzerland, Australia, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Germany, he said.

``We have investigated all points raised in the Jain Commission report including the references to Chandraswami and others,'' he said. Asked whether the MDMA had questioned Chandraswami, he said that it would be incorrect to reveal investigative details.

About Bofors, the other controversial case being handled by the CBI, the director said that the CBI would soon send a senior official to Malaysia to assist its counsel in extradition of Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, a key accused in the Rs 64 crore Bofors pay-off case. The extradition proceedings are scheduled to come up in a local court next week.

``One of our officers will be there (Kuala Lumpur) to assist our counsel when the case comes up for hearing on January 22,'' he said. Asked about the Hinduja brothers coming to India, Raghavan said that the hearing was fixed for January 19 and expressed the hope that they would turn up.

Evaluating the overall performance of the CBI in the last year, he said that conviction rate had touched an all-time high of 74 per cent. He said that this was despite cases pouring in from all over the country and the shortage of manpower. CBI registered a total of 1,116 cases last year.

``Effective monitoring of all cases in the courts of law has yielded good results for the agency and conviction was secured in 145 cases out of 200 sent for trial,'' he said. Conviction figures were better compared to 1998 and 1999 when it stood at 72.2 per cent and 58 per cent respectively.

Cricket's worst scandal in history -- betting and match-fixing investigations -- kept the agency on its toes for major part of the year. The CBI is now probing the nexus between the underworld, cricketers and administrators, he said.

Asked to comment on allegations by former cricket captain M. Azharuddin that the agency did not probe Mumbai cricketers, Raghavan said that the charges were factually incorrect. ``It is all wrong. It is not something new. All these allegations had surfaced during the six-month investigations but we have come to a conclusion and on that basis, we have submitted our report to the government,'' he said.

The CBI director also said that the Bihar government had sent the maximum number of cases to the agency -- a total of 200 -- which were being probed, including the fodder scam, bitumen scam, engineering scam and medical store depot scam. These were also regularly monitored by the Bihar High Court.

In keeping with the latest crime trends, a cyber crime prevention centre has also been set up at the CBI headquarters. The centre is recognised by Interpol and is in contact with the international agency round-the-clock. ``But unfortunately, reporting of cyber crimes is very low,'' he added.

Copyright © 2001 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.