The Hindu : Karnataka News : Tamil separatist leader Vijay Kumar dead

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jun 11, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka

Tamil separatist leader Vijay Kumar dead

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: A top Tamil separatist leader, Vijay Kumar alias Vijay Murthy, who was arrested by the Bangalore police in 2002 and lodged in the Bangalore Central Prison, died in Jayadeva Hospital here on Thursday night.

The prison authorities said Vijay Kumar, 42, who was discharged from the hospital on Thursday night and taken back again following a health problem, died of a heart attack.

According to the police, Vijay Kumar was trained in the use of explosives by the People's Liberation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) near Pudukottai in Tamil Nadu in 1985.

The Fraser Town police arrested Vijay Kumar and four of his associates in November 2002 and seized from them 1,200 electric detonators, 970 ordinary detonators, 2 kg of ammonium nitrate, 500 grams of potassium nitrate, nine hand grenades, 75 live rounds of ammunition and a manual on making bombs.

After the five persons were arrested, the then Commissioner of Police, M.D. Singh, had said the militants were apparently planning to carry out some killings here. "They had tried to test the explosives during Deepavali, a few days before they were arrested," he had said.

The Karnataka Tamils Movement, in a statement, alleged that Vijay Kumar died because he was not given medical aid by the prison authorities.

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