The Madras High Court has denied bail to two accused persons who were reportedly part of a conspiracy allegedly hatched by the proscribed Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to siphon off ₹40 crore lying in a dead woman’s inoperative savings bank account in the Mumbai Fort branch of a nationalised bank and use it for terror-funding.
Justices P.N. Prakash and RMT. Teekaa Raman refused to release T. Keeniston Fernando and K. Baskaran after concurring with the submission of National Investigation Agency (NIA) Special Public Prosecutor R. Karthikeyan that the duo had not made out any case to be enlarged on bail pending trial in a very serious case registered against them.
It was brought to the notice of the court that one Hamida A. Lalljee had a savings bank account in Indian Overseas Bank. She died, but around ₹40 crore was lying in her account. This came to the notice of the LTTE, which was banned under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, and it wanted to swindle the money for its terror activities.
