EVEN after 15 months, the CBI is trying to make some sense of the mysterious arms drop in Purulia, West Bengal. Days ago, an official request to Bangladesh authorities for a trip to Dhaka and other areas in connection with the probe drew a negative response. This during the halcyon days of Indo-Bangla relations what with the recent Ganga water-sharing agreement.
There was enough evidence to justify the CBIs request to allow its team to Bangladesh. First, the deadly cargo was marked to the "Central Ordnance depot, Rajendrapur, Bangladesh", the main arms depot there. Later, inves-tigations revealed that Kim Davy, the master-mind behind the operation, had stayed at a hotel in Varanasi and made several calls to contacts in Bangladesh. A recent press account put out by Peter Bleach, arms trafficker and a key operator arrested in connection with the arm s drop, states that Davys operations were wide and far-ranging. The Purulia contract was clearly a very small part of Davys packed schedule and he had interests in Bangladesh.
But Bangladesh authorities indicated that India could hand over its leads and clues to local investigating agencies a trip was ruled out, taking the CBI by surprise. Says a C B I officer: "It is not as though the sovereignty of Bangladesh is being challenged or its authority diminished. It is not really a matter for us to comment on, but we do wonder how a routine request for fact sharing can evoke such a diplomatic response. "The warmth in our ties suddenly seems to have flown out of the window," adds an External Affairs Ministry spokesman.
There is, however, more to the issue than mere good neighbourliness. Indian police officials and other law enforcing agencies have in the past visited Nepal to effect fol-low-up arrests or raids acting on information. But Nepalese authorities have bristled against these and conveyed their resentment through official channels. Relations between India and Nepal, again, have not been subject to the kind of tortuous ups and downs as has happened with Bangladesh over the years.
According to observers in Bangladesh, the Awami League Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is already branded as being too pro-Indian by her opponents. Even prior to the water sharing agreement, Bangladesh had announced its decision to wind up the 18 bases or shelters allegedly being used by North-east insurgents, although how many have been actually closed down remains a matter of conjecture.
A further complication is that U L FAs self-styled supreme military commander Paresh Barua has warned Bangladesh that "in case such steps are taken against us, we may have no choice but to hit back." Knowing the ULFAs clout and its striking ability, few will take it lightly.
The fact is, as Bangladesh diplomats feel, it will still take time for Indo-Bangla relations to develop and mature, and hence, this wait-and-watch policy. "In the circumstances, for India to insist that it wants to send a team overriding our objections would mean that the bigger country does not trust its smaller neighbour," said one of them. Which leaves the Indian law enforcing agencies and officialdom in exactly the same position they have often found themselves in matters relating to Bangladesh: confused and undecided.
Where does it leave the investigation? Officially, some progress has been made in that the six Latvian crew of the Russian plane along with their boss for the job, Briton Peter Bleach, have been arrested. The CBI has completed its chargesheet and a trial is about to get under way. But are the authorities any nearer to ascertaining just who was sending the arms to whom? Was it for the Ananda Margis, the Naxalites, the North-east rebels, the Burmese insurgents, the Bangla political activists?
The CBI and the state administration made much of the alleged Ananda Margi involvement. Apart from a Left-sponsored smear campaign, and calculated leaks by official agencies, no conclusive evidence seems to have been unearthed. A few days ago, Conrad Snyder Martens (it may not be his real name) was picked up after the police recovered six passports from him. Appaently an arms smuggler, he was detained for his links with Davy, who by all accounts, seems to have virtually walked away on foot from the authorities in Mumbai soon after the arms drop.
"As things stand, it is difficult to say where the investigation is heading or what it has achieved exactly," admits a former D G P who has followed the case closely. Intriguingly, there is a virtual official silence on the headway, if any, achieved by the C B I.
While Bleach, thanks to British diplomatic interest and other pressures, has been allowed a measure of comfort, the lot of the six Latvians in Presidency Jail for over one year has been pathetic. In the hot confines of the jail, the six Nordic prisoners wonder whether they can face the rigours of another gruelling Calcutta summer.
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