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Detectives unearth aborted bid to kill Kadir and shocking details
A month before he was assassinated, Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar narrowly escaped death.

At the same spot where gunmen shot him dead, killers took aim and nearly pulled the trigger. Just then, a Ministerial Security Division (MSD) officer looked at the sealed window of the Thalayasingham residence, just across the road from the late Mr. Kadirgamar's private residence at Bullers Lane.
Fearing that they had been detected, the would-be assassins fled, leaving behind the weapon and the tripod. It was days later that they realized that the MSD man had looked at the spot quite innocently and nothing had been noticed. Thereafter, for a month the killers continued to plot to assassinate Mr. Kadirgamar.

These startling disclosures have come to light as the top level investigation into the Kadirgamar assassination continued.

Among those engaged in the probe are detectives from the Criminal Investigation Department, the Colombo Crimes Division, the Directorate of Internal Intelligence and the Directorate of Foreign Intelligence.

A significant development so far is a report formulated by the investigators to confirm categorically that the LTTE was behind Mr. Kadirgamar's assassination. A copy of this report has been forwarded to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The ministry has in turn circulated it to Sri Lanka’s missions abroad so that they may apprise foreign governments and organisations of the LTTE's complicity and the futility of its repeated denials.

The contents of the report have reportedly shocked some European governments that want to impose a ban on the LTTE — a move which Norway, the peace facilitator is resisting.

Last week The Sunday Times revealed exclusively how one of LTTE intelligence wing leader Pottu Amman's confidante, whose nom de guerre was Charles was tasked to handle the assassination plot. Charles in turn placed the assignment in the hands of Vinothan.

The Sunday Times is able to reveal further details today. Vinothan made contact with Mutthiah Sahadevan alias Devan, a gardener. He had worked at the Thalayasingham residence and is known to have once mown the lawn of late Mr. Kadirgamar's private residence. In addition, Sahadevan had also been working for a lady diplomat who had been living in the neighbourhood.

Following surveillance, the LTTE had identified the upstairs of the house where Lakshman Thalayasingham lived as the point from which Mr Kadirgamar could be assassinated. Sahadevan had succeeded in obtaining a duplicate key and allowed the assassins to enter the upstairs through the garage without the knowledge of Mr. Thalayasingham or his wife. This duplicate key has now been recovered.

Vinothan had provided a mobile telephone to Sahadevan and asked that he use it only to be in touch with the killers who were using the upstairs. He had been paid handsomely, so much so, Sahadevan even purchased a plot of land at Narahenpita. He had used the mobile phone. After the assassination of Mr. Kadirgamar, a caller had told him in Sinhala "vedey hari." Later, that mobile phone had been withdrawn and a new one given to Sahadevan.

Investigators have found that the new phone issued to Sahadevan was being used even by his son. Vinothan had warned him not to use the mobile phone.
He had been asked to remove the SIM card and throw it away. But it was found that Sahadevan was not heeding their warnings and was continuing to use the mobile phone.

He had then been threatened that he would be killed if the SIM card was not thrown away. He had thereafter removed the SIM card and thrown it into the Kirillapone canal at a lonely spot. Investigators used Navy divers to trace the SIM card but they were not successful.

It has come to light that Vinothan had taken Sahadevan to Kilinochchi for meetings with Charles. Although he has given investigators a detailed brief of the marksman who fired at Mr. Kadirgamar, he was unaware of his name.
It has come to light that LTTE intelligence wing member Charles had been placed in charge of killer operations in the city. Vinothan had also introduced the driver of a three wheeler taxi to Sahadevan.

This driver had been a frequent visitor to the Thalayasingham household in the company of Sahadevan. Investigators have also uncovered evidence that a Sri Lankan businessman domiciled in Australia has been a regular visitor to the official residence of Mr. Kadirgamar.

The man who claims to have close association with the LTTE is alleged to have told Mr. Kadirgamar that the LTTE had no plans to kill him whilst he served as Foreign Minister though they may do so later when he was out of office.

Investigators believe this prompted Mr. Kadirgamar to drop his guard and regularly visit his private residence to use the swimming pool there.
Meanwhile, gardener Sahadevan has told police that the two assassins had been hiding between the ceiling and the roof of the upper floor of the Thalayasingham residence.

Investigations have revealed that in June this year, Sahadevan had broken open the padlock of the side gate and replaced it with a similar padlock, a move that had gone unnoticed by the owner of the house. The gate was padlocked by Mr. Thalayasingham after a friend who was going on a vacation left his car parked inside. The friend had one of the keys while Mr. Thalayasingham had the other.

When the friend returned to take the car a few weeks later, he could not open the padlock with his key but when Mr. Thalayasingham used the key he had in his house, the padlock had opened.

It has now been found that the gardener had kept the extra key to the new padlock in place of the old key at Mr. Thalayasingham’s residence. Colombo Crime Division Chief Sarath Lugoda said the gardener and the driver of the three-wheeler in which the murder weapon was transported to the Thalayasingham residence had been detained for further interrogation.

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