The recent death of an alleged Sri Lankan gangster in Coimbatore has brought a five-member team of officials from the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) to the city. The investigators from the Centre have senior officials in the state CB-CID, a senior official told PTI.
The Crime Branch-CID, which has taken over the investigation into the death of Maddumage Lasantha Chandana Perera alias Angoda Lokka, has formed seven special teams to look into various aspects, including his 'illegal' stay and fabrication of documents to get Aadhaar card for him.
According to the official, the RAW team was in the city on Wednesday and held discussions with CB-CID Inspector General of Police, K Shankar and other senior officials, as Lokka was wanted in connection with serious offences in the Island nation and in the wake of a 'red notice' issued by Interpol.
The team reportedly collected some important documents with regard to Lokka, the official said.
The deceased, according to Times of India, was operating his gang in Sri Lanka through WhatsApp calls till his death. He had reportedly executed the murder of a man named Konda Tharaka with the help of his gang members in 2019 in Sri Lanka, by giving instructions on WhatsApp calls.
Lokka, whose name was changed as Pradeep Singh in his Aadhaar card, allegedly suffered a cardiac arrest and was declared brought dead at a private hospital in Coimbatore on July 3.
After autopsy at a government hospital, the body was taken to Madurai and cremated.
The media in Sri Lanka had reported that the gangster was poisoned to death in India, following which the island nation police sought the help of Coimbatore police for information.
Coimbatore city police arrested Sivakami Sundari, Dyaneswaran and Amani Thanji, a Sri Lankan woman, on Sunday on charges of forging documents to get an Aadhaar card for Lokka.
According to sources, Amani Thanji's husband was killed by Lokka in Sri Lanka and after that she was staying with him.
In order to establish Lokka's identity, CB-CID has sent the viscera to Chennai for examination, the police official added.
Meanwhile, Shankar told reporters that the CB-CID will take Sivakami Sundari, a Madurai-based lawyer, into custody to find if there was any possibility of a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) connection after it emerged that she had transactions of nearly Rs 1 crore in seven accounts.
Sundari had allegedly assisted the other two in taking the body for cremation in Madurai.
Sundari's father is allegedly a known LTTE sympathiser and one of the seven special teams is on the job to establish his possible links with the LTTE, Shankar said.The agency is checking these money transactions and wanted to know from where she was getting the money and if there was any foreign link, he added.
The CB-CID Inspector General said that all the three arrested persons will be taken into custody for interrogation.