CID probing massive transfer of funds, vehicles to LTTE

KOTTE: Chairman of the CBE Tiran Alles was arrested by the CID to question him on the transfer of a vast amount of funds to the LTTE through the TNJ Company registered under the name of leading LTTE activist Emil Kanthan for the past several years, Information and Media Minister Anura Priyadarshana Yapa told Parliament yesterday.

According to information received Alles had set up the TNJ Company in Kanthan’s name utilising his own funds and 33 Volvo and Benz vehicles and various other equipment had been transferred through it to the LTTE ostensibly for building houses.

Emil Kanthan who had escaped from Police custody in 1999 had been taken into custody by the Colombo Special Crime Bureau on several occasions on terrorism charges.

Kanthan was also the leader of the gang which assaulted Minister Douglas Devananda at the Kalutara prison in 2002. Thereafter, Kanthan had fled the country. He had established contacts with Alles six years ago.

With the use of mobile phones in the North and East, Alles’s Company had obtained the Agency to market Dialog mobile connections in the North and East. The commission agreed was 50 per cent of the monthly bill paid to Dialog from each connection.

Accordingly, billions of rupees had been paid to Alles’s CBE Company in respect of mobile phone connections given to the North and East and this money had been procured for LTTE needs locally and internationally.

According to statements made and information received by the CID, the TNJ Company had obtained leasing facilities from the Hatton National Bank to provide the Volvos and Benzes to the LTTE.

Out of Rs. 220 million loaned under this leasing facility Rs. 90 millions had not been paid to the HNB and the Bank had written off this amount as had debts. Gampaha District UNP Parliamentarian Dr. Jayalath Jayawardena had appeared as surety for the company to obtain this massive amount without any acceptable collateral.

The Bank had not been able to either recover the balance loan or detect the vehicles purchased from this money. Quite recently the CBE had purchased a house at Pita Kotte valued at over Rs. 20 million in the name of Emil Kanthan’s mother. This transaction had been done by the Company’s Finance Director Dushantha Basnayake.

The CID is now probing the Bank accounts of TNJ and CBE and collecting information about the above mentioned persons.