Rajiv Gandhi assassination accused Kumaran Pathmanathan escapes from Sri Lanka, say reports

Kumaran Pathmanathan, an LTTE leader wanted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, is said to have escaped from Colombo with the help of Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, said media reports.

Reports also suggest, after Mahinda Rajapaksa conceded defeat in presidential election, he was taken out of the country fearing that he would be handed over to India.

Sri Lanka had resisted international moves to have KP extradited to India to face charges, but with the fall of the Rajapaksa regime, questions have risen about the fate of the LTTE leader.

Kumaran Pathmanathan, who is better known as 'KP', was 'arrested' by the then Sri Lankan government in August 2009 in a Southeast Asian nation and brought to Colombo where he was welcomed as a "VVIP" by then defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

On Saturday (January 10), newly-elected Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena's top aide and spokesman Rajitha Senaratne had said they were also trying to locate KP and investigating reports that he had fled the island.

"The information we have is that he was taken out of the country. He had used the VIP lounge so there is no record of him leaving," Senaratne had said adding that Colombo will prosecute him even if he had escaped abroad.

It had been alleged that Gotabhaya and the government of his brother and outgoing president Mahinda Rajapaksa had cut a deal with LTTE leaders to access their wealth abroad in exchange for safety and protection for the guerrillas.

(With agency inputs)