Sri Lankan woman planned to swindle bank off Rs 42 crore for LTTE: Probe

The woman, Letchumanan Mary Franciska, 51, was arrested from Chennai airport on October 1, 2021. Her four associates, including one Indian and three Lankans, were also arrested by the Q branch. The case was taken over by the NIA last month from the TN police for a detailed probe into the funding and regrouping plans of the Tamil Tigers.

The police had nabbed the woman travelling with a fake Indian passport, and other forged documents to Mumbai via Bengaluru. She was on her way to withdraw or transfer Rs 42 crore from a bank account in IOB’s Fort branch in Mumbai, belonging to a person in the UK, sources said.

After she was alerted by two LTTE sympathisers about the dormant account, she had initially tried to transfer the account online by obtaining a new mobile phone SIM in the name of the account holder using fake documents. 

After the efforts failed she allegedly created fake documents to show that she was the legal heir of the account holder and was on her way to the bank. This was when the Q branch team picked her up. She was allegedly planning to transfer the amount to different bank accounts in India and abroad belonging to LTTE sympathisers, the FIR by the NIA stated.

After arriving in Chennai in December 2019 with a Lankan passport, Mary Franciska, a resident of Canada, managed to get an Indian passport by submitting fake documents. She had been staying in Anna Nagar, Chennai, and obtained the Indian passport by showing lease agreement and gas connection documents. She also had an Indian voter ID card.