A lieutenant who turned into a ‘mole’ - The Hindu

You don’t have any Active Subscription.

Subscribed with another email? Logout and Login with that one.

Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more. Unlock these with Subscription

Weather News November 12, 2026 e-Paper

The View From India Looking at World Affairs from the Indian perspective.

First Day First Show News and reviews from the world of cinema and streaming.

Today's Cache Your download of the top 5 technology stories of the day.

Science For All The weekly newsletter from science writers takes the jargon out of science and puts the fun in!

Data Point Decoding the headlines with facts, figures, and numbers

THEdge At the cutting edge of education and careers

Health Matters Ramya Kannan writes to you on getting to good health, and staying there

Gender Agenda Stories from beyond the binary.

The Hindu On Books Books of the week, reviews, excerpts, new titles and features.

Published - November 29, 2017 08:18 am IST - CHENNAI

The final batch of the IPKF soldiers, who left the Jaffna peninsula of Sri Lanka on March 20, 1990, lining up on arrival at the Madras harbour on March 21, 1990. Photo: N. Sridharan

It is now known that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) executed Mahattaya, the organisation’s deputy leader, in the mid-1990s on the charge of being an agent of Indian intelligence.

A compilation of documents from the LTTE’s political wing published now says the dreaded militant group believed that it had got conclusive proof against him only after he was left out of the charge-sheet in India in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, filed in 1992.

The documents suggest Mahattaya, whose real name was Gopalasamy Mahendraraja, was accused by the LTTE leadership of not only tipping off Indian security agencies about the whereabouts of a ship carrying its front-ranking leader Sathasivam Krishnakumar, alias Kittu, in early 1993, but also hatching a plot to kill the supreme leader V. Prabakaran.

The documents, now part of the book published by VOC Noolagam, say it was intelligence wing leader Pottu Amman who foiled the alleged attempt to assassinate Prabakaran.

Under the LTTE intelligence scanner for long, it was his non-inclusion in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case charge-sheet that confirmed Pottu Amman’s doubts about Mahattaya, the documents claim.

Pottu Amman had grown suspicious of Mahattaya immediately after Kittu lost a leg in a grenade attack in March 1987. “The area did not come under any attack from the Sri Lankan Army. Rival groups were also totally inactive. Then who would have been responsible for the blast?” asks one of the documents.

Kittu’s arrival in Jaffna was a closely guarded secret and only top leaders were aware of it. Who leaked it to the Indian intelligence agencies? This was a question that bothered Pottu Amman, who waited for further evidence. Mahattaya did not attend Kittu’s funeral.

The political wing statements suggest that the LTTE interrogated many Mahattaya supporters, including cadre who escaped from custody in India during this period.

Barring Mahattaya, all others admitted to their role in their statements, the documents claim. They had been promised money and India’s support if the conspiracy succeeded. A bodyguard of Prabakaran lodged in an Indian prison was released and given special training. As per Mahattaya’s plan, the assassin should plant a time-bomb in Prabakaran’s bed. The submissions of all those arrested were compiled as a document.

Published - November 29, 2017 08:18 am IST

Copyright© 2026, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.

Terms & conditions | Institutional Subscriber

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.