The case of Rajasingham Jeyadevan alias Undiyalaan is typical that of an individual hijacking, and hiding under the banner of democracy to save himself from justice. Undiyalaan founded the Tamil Democratic Congress (TDC) in November 2005 at the age of 50, after having lived in a western democratic state for a number of decades. Why then did it take Undiyalaan so long to be 'enlightened'? Is he a genuine voice of the British Tamils, or does he see this new organisation as one that could help him save face and escape justice?

In 2005, Undiyalaan admitted to the British authorities that he had been involved with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as a supporter and sympathiser since the early 90s. During the 90s Undiyalaan used his associations with the LTTE to his advantage to gain the trust of the Tamils residing in United Kingdom. He founded several small organisations claiming to help the Tamil people.

One of Undiyalaan's ventures was the Elapetheshwarar Hindu temple in North-West London. He had included 'Ela' in the name and had claimed that all funds raised at the temple would be sent to help the poor Ela Tamils. During the initial years the temple had amassed a large sum of money and goods which were intended to help the poor Ela Tamils. Suspicions arose amongst the local Tamil population when, Jeyadevan began to purchase luxury houses and cars in one of the most expensive property markets in the world.

By 2004, local Tamils had lost all hope of finding out what was going on with the Temple money by contacting the temple officials. Hence, concerned citizens began a petition asking the LTTE if the money raised at the temple was going to help the poor Ela Tamils, or if it was being used for other purposes.

The petition was a runaway success, with the organisers managing to get around 50, 000 Tamils from all across the United Kingdom to sign it. It was promptly sent to the LTTE leadership based in Kilinochchi of northern Sri Lanka. As the LTTE had signed the Cease Fire Agreement (CFA) with the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL), routes were opened and contact with the LTTE was relatively easy during this period.

An annoyed LTTE leadership, wrote to Undiyalaan asking if he had used his association with them to set up a temple and amass a personal fortune through the religious institution. Undiyalaan expecting the LTTE to be a typical third world government, or a despot regime flew to Sri Lanka with a few thousand pounds sterling which he thought could be used to bribe the LTTE.

When he reached Kilinochchi, he was in for a shocker. An LTTE leadership that was visibly irritated with Undiyalaan exploiting people's religious believes for his personal gain, asked him to make the Temple public property and publish the account details. It seems that Undiyalaan was not going to give up on jackpot. He clearly saw the temple as a money making machine, and told the LTTE point blank that he would not make the temple public or publish the accounts.

Further his attempt at bribery was looked upon as a serious crime by the LTTE. Several news organisations including Reuters have reported in the past on the serious attention LTTE gives to cases of bribery and corruption. Subsequently, the courts in the de-facto state had issued Undiyalaan with a prison sentence for attempting to bribe officials. This would have been the case if Undiyalaan had attempted to bribe any officials in any civilised state.

When his prison sentence was over Undiyalaan returned to the United Kingdom. Knowing that he had lost his name with the LTTE and the local Tamil population he decided to transfer the temple to a close relative. As long as the money remains in the family, it's all right; must have been the thinking.

He then embarked on a campaign, to save face with the British government and prevent investigations into the temple money. He picked the easiest banner available to him in 2005. That banner is democracy. As long as he claims to be a 'democratic' there will be no investigations. In fact he would even get the opportunity to speak to Members of Parliament.

Has anyone ever asked Undiyalaan, why it took him so long to become democratic? Why it was only after he lost favours with the LTTE he decided democracy was a good thing? Furthermore, what happened to the money collected at the temple? What happens to the money still being collected?

How can Undiyalaan claim to be a Tamil democratic leader when his TDC only has the support of around a 100 out of the 100, 000 Tamils who reside in the United Kingdom. A concerned citizen wrote to this editor asking is Al-Qaeda was to call itself 'Democratic Al-Qaeda' or 'Al-Qaeda for Peace', would it be able to operate freely in Europe. Would it be able to hold meetings with MPs. Why then this hypocrisy in the treatment dished out to infamous paramilitary supporters and sympathisers, he asks.

The letter also pointed out that while the LTTE and GoSL are locked in a CFA, it is the paramilitaries who are brining the island close to civil war again. He said that this fact has been confirmed by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) and the facilitators of the peace process.

Now it appears that Undiyalaan has gone a step further and requested the governments of Europe to curb up on free media. In the land where even cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed –peace be upon him- are published freely, Undiyalaan believes a cooked up story of harassment would be enough to have media networks shut down.

'This guy is trying to take the west on a ride', said a regular visitor to the Nitharsanam.com Tamil news website which Undiyalaan is attempting to get blocked. Further the website itself claimed that Undiyalaan has a personal vendetta against the site, because it was one of the first to start asking him to publish the accounts from the temple.

What ever Undiyalaan has been doing so far, he has had relative success with the western state institutions. Although his new found banner did not fool many Tamils to support him, the western state institutions have dashed out some special services to him by not investigation where the money from the undiyal is going.

However, many feel that attempts to curb down on free media are a step too far even for Undiyalaan. Meanwhile, visitors to the respective website have been writing to the particular website asking it to 'continue with his good quality honest reporting', said the Editor in a statement from his base in Sri Lanka.

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