Gupta's pique is justified. More than a month-and-a-half after the arms drop at Purulia, it is becoming increasingly clear that the role of Pakistan's ISI in the incident was probably minimal. Investigators working on the case in Delhi and Calcutta now believe that the cash-strapped Ananda Marg, which had hit national headlines in the '70s until the clampdown during the Emergency, may have been the 'natural' conduit for the lethal arms meant for some other insurgency group or groups.
The Minister of State for Home, Sibte Razi, had publicly announced the involvement of Pakistan in the arms drop. But for investigators it was a pronouncement made far too soon. What made the latter pursue a different line from the Home Ministry?
The first factor was the identification of two clearly Indian characters in the entire drama—Satyanarayan Gowda and Randhir Ananda Awadhoot, popularly known as Randy, both familiar associates of Peter Bleach, the arrested British arms dealer.
Well placed sources say that the all-important tip-off came from the West Bengal Central Intelligence Department (CID), which during the course of a routine surveillance of the Marg's headquarters, stumbled upon some interesting facts. Randy, it was found, was a highly-placed Margi, close to the absconding man identified as Kim Peter Davy. Digging into their old files, the investigators found that Randy had attended the funeral of Anand Murti, the founder of the Ananda Marg sect, on October 21, 1990. According to intelligence files, Randy was listed as a 'foreign delegate' at the funeral. He was also a member of the Voluntary Social Service (VSS), whose offices are located at Bansnagar under the Jhalda police station of Purulia, the place where the maximum number of AK assault rifles and rocket launchers were recovered.
Says an official connected with the investigation: "We are now trying to establish Randy's connection with the VSS. The arms had been dropped in the same area where their (the VSS') activists are known to be active."
The next interesting facet came to light when investigators examined the telephone bills of Calcutta's Great Eastern Hotel and discovered that the elusive Davy had stayed there for three days and made a telephone call on the evening of September 18. Investigators say the call was made to 438532—the telephone number of the Ananda Marg headquarters at Tiljala—and lasted for exactly 18 seconds. At the hotel, Davy was accompanied by another man, referred to as Johnson.
Given that these people were involved, who were the arms meant for? "It is unlikely that the Margis could have any use for the AKs and other anti-tank weapons. We now believe that the arms were meant for a crack insurgency group, possibly in the North-east, where the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland, the Mizo National Front and other outlawed organisations are known to be using such heavy artillery," an official connected with the investigation points out.
Defence officials are exploring yet another possibility. Did Davy and his team shoot any aerial photographs on the way? They point out that there are three important army bases on the way from Varanasi to Calcutta: the Gorkha Training Centre at Varanasi, the Army Service Corps, north Paharpur near Gaya in Bihar, and the Ramgarh Army Training Centres.
As investigations proceed, enforcement officials point to the existence of a hawala circuit for arms running. Davy, officials say, has been operating out of the country for the last three years under the cover of a video camera exporter dealing with several Delhi-based firms. The CBI possesses evidence that Davy was sending dollars through the hawala route by grossly over-invoicing exports. In early January, the agency raided the Delhi farmhouse of Arv-inder Singh, reported to be a Davy associate, and recovered money in cash and banker cheques worth Rs 40 lakh. A simultaneous raid in Madras fetched another Rs 10 lakh. A further interrogation with Delhi-based Amarjit Singh of Messrs Jasco Exports on January 20 revealed that two men called King and Davy were joint owners of the Hong Kong-based Howerstock Trading Corporation and "were involved in the hawala racket in a big way".
The investigations have provided important leads. For one, they have established the omnipresence of the shadowy Davy. He stayed at hotels in Calcutta and Varanasi, had links with exporters in Delhi and slipped out of the Bombay airport when his associates were caught. But exactly how deep the conspiracy runs is a question that the security officials are still finding difficult to answer.
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