Sunday Times 2
On the trail of Comrade Shan’s wife in Chennai
A few weeks ago, I wrote about following a foreign lady from Colombo to Palaly Airport. Today I write about another tale on the trail – following a Sri Lankan woman from Colombo to Madras (now known as Chennai).
It happened at a time when the JVP was attacking police stations and seizing arms and the man who was leading the clandestine group was Rohana Wijeweera, a leftist student closely associated with the Communist Party of the Moscow Wing. While he was studying in the Lumumba University, the Communist Party split into two – the Moscow wing and the Peking Wing. If I recollect correctly, Peter Keuneman and others were the frontliners of the Moscow Wing while N. Shanmuganathan (known as Comrade Shan) led the Peking Wing. It was learned Wijeweera spoke in support of the Peking wing and as a result he was expelled from the Lumumba University.
He returned to Ceylon and got close to Comrade Shan. Wijeweera became popular and his supporters planned to take control of the Peking wing by ousting Comrade Shan. However, Comrade Shan was a much shrewder leader. Sensing that Wijeweera was planning to oust him, he expelled Wijeweera from the party. It was said that this dismissal made him to organise the revolutionary group known as the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP).
Wijeweera, being a powerful speaker, formulated five lectures to indoctrinate largely unemployed and undergraduate youths. He held clandestine classes throughout the country, except in the North and East. One of his five lectures was on how to attack a police station and seize arms.
When this was going on, the Intelligence Branch received information that Comrade Shan had imported a weapon and that it was to be cleared by the Customs. We followed this lead and found that one of Comrade Shan’s representatives had gone to clear the consignment. Once he cleared the consignment he was arrested and it was found that the weapon was an Air Rifle. When questioned, he said it was Comrade Shan who had ordered imported the weapon. Comrade Shan too was questioned but was not taken into custody. Comrade Shan appeared to be flustered because of this detection and for having been questioned by the Police. We found out that since he could not leave the country, he had made arrangements to send his wife to Madras (Chennai) with some confidential message to be passed on to one of his party contacts there.
I was asked to be ready to fly with this lady to Madras and trail her movements. I bought my tickets and boarded the same flight. As soon as the plane touched down in Madras, I disembarked before the lady, as I wanted to know where she was heading. When I was approaching the disembarkation section lobby, I saw some people hiding behind pillars and looking in the direction of incoming passengers. I got out of the terminal and waited till Mrs. Shan came out. Outside the airport, there were state transport buses which took passengers to the city. I saw Mrs. Shan getting into one of the buses. I too followed and sat behind her seat. She bought a ticket to the Egmore Railway Station, which was in the heart of the city.
She disembarked from the bus and walked up to a hotel which carried a Victorian Monarch’s name. As a young Sub-Inspector in the Pettah area in 1962, I had seen a hotel with a similar name. Its owners were of Indian origin and some of the employees were also of Indian origin. I was hoping that I would be lucky if I could trace some of the former employees who were at Pettah. Mrs. Shan went into the hotel and booked a room for herself. I befriended the employees, identifying myself. Some of them had heard my name while they were in the hotel opposite the Fort Railway Station. I managed to get a room next to Mrs. Shan’s room.
When I entered the hotel, I saw some people following Mrs. Shan. When I went up to my room later, I saw a few more people in the quadrangle of the hotel. I later realised they were policemen in civil clothes. Later in the evening Mrs. Shan came out of the room and walked out of the hotel. I kept a distance and found a few of the officers were also following her. Keeping a distance, I followed the movements of Mrs. Shan and the police officers in civvies. Since it was an “Open surveillance” conducted by the local police, I felt that Mrs. Shan was aware that someone was following her. Having realised that she was being followed, she returned to the hotel.
In the meantime, I was able to get acquainted with the hotel’s telephone operator and the waiters and persuaded them to help me to check on the movements of Mrs. Shan. The telephone operator agreed to connect to my phone all incoming and outgoing calls from her room.
In the night she took a call to her husband. With the help of the telephone operator I was able to listen to her conversation. She was complaining bitterly to Comrade Shan that from the time she came to the airport she had been under surveillance and the police officers were following her like sniffer dogs. She told him she was unable to do what she had come to do. Comrade Shan listened to her and instructed her to make a complaint to the Sri Lanka High Commissioner in Chennai of the harassment by the Madras Police. The next day she got out of the hotel and was followed by the police officers, this time openly, leaving her no opportunity to meet anyone on the wayside.
In India there are several Inspectors General of Police (IGPs) and Directors General of Police (DGPs). The DGPs handling the law and order subject in all the States are considered powerful officers. On making inquiries I found that the DGP at that time had followed a training course with me in Britain sometime back. Taking this opportunity I went and met him. He recognised me. I explained to him of Mrs. Shan’s complaint to her husband and that she was advised by him to go the High Commission’s office and make a complaint about the Police. He listened to me and in typical Tamil Nadu accent stated, “Mr. Jayanaadan, we are conducting an open surveillance. We do not want her to be here. We want her to get back to Ceylon as “Prevention is better than cure”. It was gathered that the Indian establishment was suspicious about Communist Party Peking Wing supporters visiting India and, specially, Chennai. Anyone who had connections with the Chinese was under constant surveillance and investigation. Thanking him, I went back to the Hotel.
The same night Mrs.Shan telephoned her husband Comrade Shan and bitterly complained of the Police personnel on her trail whenever she went out, and that she could not stay any longer in Chennai and that she was taking the next flight to Sri Lanka. I too had to hurriedly book my return ticket and I followed her to Sri Lanka on the same flight. I reported about her activities and what transpired in Madras to my superiors.
(The writer is a retired Deputy Inspector General of Police)