In a sensational allegation, Kim Davy, an accused in the 1995 Purulia arms drop case, has told a TV channel that the "Indian government had planned the arms drop in collaboration with British intelligence to destabilise the then Communist government" in West Bengal.
The objective "was to destabilize the government of West Bengal so that president's rule could be declared and the CPI-M government disposed," Davy said in an interview to the Times Now TV channel, a release issued by the channel said.
When asked why he was revealing all this now, Davy said that he "feared getting extradited to India and wanted to reveal the truth, and to set the record straight".
"I am under the danger of being extradited to India as a terrorist, I don't feel I am a terrorist, I have not done anything to harm anyone, on the contrary done things to protect people from communist terror, state sponsored terror and I kept my silence in all those years... 15 years, but now political forces in India are coming out to reach at me again," he said.
"Peter Bleach (the prime accused), who was released after getting a presidential pardon, said that the entire operation was planned and plotted by the Narasimha Rao government at the centre. And my understanding is, in fact, the Indian government actually supported the whole thing. It was an Indian government job," the release quoted Davy as saying.
The government has so far not responded to Davy's allegations.
On the night of Dec 17, 1995, a large consignment of arms, including several hundred AK-47 rifles, anti-tank weapons and ammunition were dropped from a Latvian aircraft in West Bengal's Purulia district.
Five Lativian citizens and British arms dealer Peter Bleach was arrested, but Kim Davy managed to escape.
The arrested were tried in courts and sentenced to life terms, but eventually let out. Bleach was extradited to England in 2004 during the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA rule, purportedly under British pressure.
Davy, who was located in Denmark, could not be extradited to India as the Danish court said he was unlikely to get a fair trial and would possibly face a threat to his life in West Bengal.