PA candidates used five vehicles belonging to the People's Bank for election work. After the United National Front Government came into power, the Bank had written to the PA leadership to obtain the money.

They charged Rs. 12 per kilometre run by each vehicle. The shock came when they found the money was paid up from public funds.

There is proof of who authorised and from where the money came. "We will let it be known in due course," says one top sleuth.

The first casualty
Twenty two year old Sudirikku Erosha Nilantha, the first solder to die since guns fell silent in the battle zones of the North and East, on Christmas eve last year, will receive a funeral with full military honours in his home town, Wadigala in Ranna in the Hambantota district tomorrow.

This is despite the Defence Ministry's claim on Thursday that Nilantha "had been in a depressed state of mind" when he "strayed into LTTE controlled areas contrary to Army orders." The area lay past the "no go" zone between Army and Tiger guerrilla check-points at Muhamalai.

The soldier had opened fire wounding two female guerrilla cadres. He was later shot dead by Tiger guerrillas.

An MoD news release which said the soldier "had been in a depressed state of mind" added that the Sri Lanka Army has been asked to conduct "a full inquiry" into the incident.

The fact that the "judgment" had been passed that he was "in a depressed state of mind" even before a "full inquiry" had commenced raises more questions than it answers.

Investigators will now have to begin their "full inquiry" by finding out why the soldier was in a "depressed state of mind." That would naturally turn to finding out whether there are any more in such a state of mind, the reason why and remedial measures necessary. If by some chance, the statement was only "cautious over reaction" to ensure the incident had no adverse impact on the ongoing peace initiatives, there need be no worry.

The Tiger guerrillas had not suspected any such motive and were the first to make it clear to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission representatives that the incident had no relevance to the ongoing peace process. It was quite clear to them.

Though matters have been cleared, sections of the UNF leadership are still worried. What would the Janatha Vimukthi Peramana (JVP) have to say.

The funeral with full military honours is taking place in one of its strongholds. Late soldier Nilantha joined the Army on July 18, 2001, received training at the headquarters of the First Battalion of the Gajaba Regiment in Kuruwita and became an active soldier on February 1, this year.

Revelation
When the late Indian PM Rajiv Gandhi, faced a difficulty in persuading LTTE leader Prabhakaran, to accept the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord of 1987, the then head of the PLO office in New Delhi, contacted him and offered his good offices for making Prabhakaran amenable to reason. After politely rejecting his offer, the late Rajiv Gandhi, had made inquiries made as to how the PLO representative claimed to have influence over Prabhakaran. They revealed that without the knowledge of the Government of India, the PLO representative had been clandestinely interacting with Prabhakaran, the late Kittu (real name: Sathasivam Krishnakumar) and other leaders and "possibly extending financial assistance to them." The revelation comes from B. Raman, a one time Addl. Secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat of the Govt of India in an article titled The LTTE: The Metamorphosis. He is now Director, Institute for Topical Studies, Chennai.

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