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V Gopalsamy, three other witnesses turned hostile

Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary V Gopalsamy, once a staunch supporter of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, was one of the four witnesses to turn hostile during cross-examination.

Though the Central Bureau of Investigation's Special Investigation Team cited as many as 1,014 witnesses, it chose to cross-examine only 288. Of these, four witnesses -- Gopalsamy and three Dravida Kazhagam activists -- turned hostile.

Gopalsamy, who was one of the secret witnesses, turned hostile when he was questioned about the telephonic conversation he had with LTTE chief V Prabakaran during the latter's stay at Hotel Ashoka in Delhi, a day after the signing of the Indo-Sri Lankan accord on July 29, 1987.

When Gopalsamy denied having spoken to Prabakaran, the prosecution played a video-cassette which showed the former delivering a speech on the Indo-Sri Lankan accord before a gathering of students at Palayamkottai.

While admitting that the picture in the video frame was indeed his, Gopalsamy maintained that the voice was someone else's.

Following this, the prosecution sent the cassette to an expert at the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras dealing with voice recognition. The expert confirmed that the voice was that of the person in the video-cassette.

The three DK activists turned hostile when they were asked about their alleged involvement in abetting the LTTE.

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