Continuing from the earlier two pieces:

What Peter Bleach told me was that procuring the arms and ammunition (from Bulgaria) and the Antonov-26 aircraft (from Latvia) was easy as pie. Assembling the crew was also a walk in the park. After the break-up of Russia, the economy of the splinter countries like Latvia was in bad shape and most of the crew were desperate for a job, any job. However, the conspirators’ entire plan was crumbling because, apparently, procuring the military-grade parachutes was a big hurdle, it being a very tightly controlled item. After a long global search, finally, they managed to procure them from South Africa (SA). One Deepak Manikan alias Dayanand brought the parachutes and collapsible shock-absorbing bases (for a roller effect so that the ordnance would not break upon landing) from an SA army surplus dealer. Deepak was in the plane at the time of the airdrop and peeled off from the party at Phuket.

There is some dispute about the amount of arms, ammunition and explosives. In that first examination of Peter Bleach, he said that the original deal (reduced later) was for 2,500 Kalashnikov (AK-47) rifles, 25 pistols, 15 lac rounds of ammo, 100 rocket-propelled anti-tank grenades, 25 PM-79 anti-personnel landmines, 10 RPG-7 rocket launchers, Dragunov sniper rifles with optical sights and Night Vision Devices, a total 5-10 tonnes of lethal cargo. He has given different versions at different points of time. What was recovered was 260 firearms, 24,428 rounds of ammo, 10 rocket launchers and so on. Apparently, at the relevant time, a car was supposed to shine its headlights on a three-storied white building (Taherbera village, Bansgarh, a training centre of Ananda Marg) where the weapons were to be dropped. For some reason, that didn’t happen so they had to drop the parachutes solely by the grid reference. One parachute had definitely dropped at the right point and one was probably slightly off. The material in the first consignment had probably disappeared because it dropped in the area completely controlled by the Ananda Margis. The second one (probably two) dropped wrong and it was this second consignment/s which was discovered and led to the sensational aftermath. Since the operation was not as smooth as they expected, they hurried off. They dropped a remaining parachute of arms and explosives over Bay of Bengal on their way from Calcutta to Phuket.

This brought me to the role of Peter Bleach. Before I could ask him anything, he asked me why they had not been arrested in Varanasi when he had given all information to British authorities and through them to the Indian agencies. He claimed he was acting as a double agent so that the criminals could be caught. He readily admitted to arranging the supplies, the aircraft and practically everything on a strictly commercial basis but wanted the rogues to be caught. However, I kept asking him why then he himself was in the aircraft and he never could give a satisfactory answer to that one question. Bleach was deeply involved in the conspiracy and the criminality. It was he who had organised the fraudulent End User Certificate from Major General Md Subed Ali Bhuiyan, Principal Staff Officer, PMO, Armed Forces Division, Dhaka Cantonment against which the Bulgarian firms supplied the weapons.

Bleach confessed that some firearms were still inside the aircraft. The aircraft had been sealed. There was a lot of debate as to who had the authority to break open the seal. The rules were checked and it turned out that only the Customs officials had that authority at that point. After the aircraft was opened, we went in and Bleach smartly opened up the floorboards, picked out different parts of the firearms in different locations and deftly assembled a rifle. The aircraft contained two Dragunov sniper rifles, three Makarov pistols, ammo, telescopic instrument, Night Vision Devices, lap-top computer of Kim Davy, cameras, exposed films and a briefcase of Kim Davy,

This threw up the role of Varanasi Customs. On its way to Purulia, the aircraft was stationed at Varanasi, ex-Karachi for three hours but the Customs authorities at Varanasi did not bother to inspect or rummage it, as was their duty. Once the aircraft left Varanasi, it became a domestic flight and Calcutta security or Customs would not check it unless there was some specific information.

Lots have been written on the subject and lots have been speculated. Based on that first interrogation and other material, here is my take:

The whole organization of Ananda Marg was not involved. It was probably a strictly commercial operation by a small group in the Ananda Marg to sell the weapons to some extremist groups. ULFA and LTTE were mentioned but could be others. Members of this Ananda Marg group must have ranked pretty high in the organisation. They tried to take advantage of the fact that there is a very large swathe of land in Purulia which was completely controlled by Ananda Marg and was a no-go area for the local Police. One consignment probably fell in there and disappeared for ever.

The Latvian crew members were fairly innocent of the conspiracy till a late stage. They knew that they were flying an unauthorised aircraft. They had witnessed the firearms being loaded and the pilot had to open the rear door of the aircraft for the armsdrop and so on, but I guess, they were desperate for a buck.

Peter Bleach’s protestations were without merit. He calculated that there was an infinitesimally small chance of their being caught. He was just taking out a tiny insurance through involving British security establishment, on the off-chance of anything going awry. The insurance was not too robust or watertight because he estimated the risk as small. After being caught, he desperately wanted to be an “approver,” i.e., a government witness against the others. Bleach was working hand in glove with Kim Davy as is clear from the fact that his evidence against the Indian prison system proved critical for Kim Davy not being deported to India from Denmark. However, Kim Davy was key, along with one Satyendra Narayan Singh @ Satyanarayan Gowda @ Randy. At the time of the armsdrop, the latter was in Purulia to “receive” the ordnance. Kim Davy’s sheer audacity in flying back through India after such a hullabaloo takes my breath away.

I returned to Calcutta a day or two after the arrested party had reached and resumed my humdrum duties as SP, Calcutta Airport. A whole week later, I (along with other SPs) received an advisory that a European had bought a plane and was in the process of transporting a large consignment of arms and ammunition to a particular place in Purulia … (the complete message has been reproduced in Chandan Nandy’s book). The input was specific, pinpointed and actionable; only about 10 days too late. Apparently, someone junior in charge of dissemination of the input mistook the location in Purulia as part of Bihar hence the original communication had gone only to that state.

Whatever happened next? Well, Ananda Marg is still operating although their headquarters, Ananda Nagar is no longer a no-go area for the Police. The court sentenced Peter Bleach and the five Latvian crew members to life imprisonment in 2000. Under pressure from foreign governments, the government of India released first, the Latvian crew and subsequently, Peter Bleach who is in UK and has been going around blithely testifying against Indian prisons, Indian systems, Indian everything. Kim Davy is enjoying life in Denmark. He has written a book, “De Kalder Mig Terrorist” (“They call me terrorist”) and periodically appears on obliging Indian TV channels raving and ranting about CPM, Jyoti Basu and such others and spinning ever more fanciful conspiracy theories involving Narasimha Rao, Pappu Yadav, Indian Air Force and so on. The other chief conspirator, Satyendra Narayan Singh @ Randy has never been traced. Meanwhile, a very large quantity of arms, ammunitions and explosives are lying around somewhere “out there,” undetected. And waiting …