Purulia arms accused offers to testify

London: Yorkshire-based arms dealer Peter Bleach, who spent eight years in a Kolkata jail after being convicted of weapon smuggling, has offered to return to India and depose against the main suspect in the case, Kim Davy.

It was on the night of December 17, 1995, that sophisticated arms and ammunition were dropped over Purulia from an AN-26 aircraft. Davy was identified as the prime suspect but had managed to flee India five days later from the Mumbai airport.

Davy was declared a proclaimed offender and a Red-Corner Notice was issued against him by Interpol. In February 2002, the Central Bureau of Investigation located him in Denmark and sent their extradition request to Denmark in October 2002.

CNN-IBN correspondent Akanksha Banerji spoke to the UK-based arms dealer, Bleach about his decision to come back to India to testify against Kim Davy.

Akanksha Banerji: What has made you decide now that you want to go back as a witness? What do you really hope to achieve?

Peter Bleach: Nothing got decided now, but I have always felt this way. Of course the new development is the fact that the Indian Government appears to have agreed to Denmark’s terms for the extradition of this man known as Kim Davy.

Akanksha Banerji: But what proof do you have now that will help nail Kim Davy or that would prove that Kim Davy in fact was the ring leader of this entire mission.

Peter Bleach: I eye-witnessed the whole of the Purulia region from where it goes. What you must remember is if you look back at the story, you see this fantastic conspiracy to drop 300 AK-47 rifles into West Bengal or somewhere close to the border of West Bengal and Bihar.

Now, who were they for? Nobody has ever discovered anybody in India who wanted these arms. They weren’t being dropped out of the aircraft just for fun. A great deal of money was involved and a great deal of difficulty in fact.

Somebody on the ground, either in West Bengal or in Bihar wanted those rifles. The interesting thing is that nobody, no court in the whole of India has heard the whole story, and that’s the problem.

Akanksha Banerji: Do we know who were the weapons were for?

Peter Bleach: That is the critical thing. We do not know at least I do not know whom those arms were for. The only person who can tell you that is the person who wanted to buy the arms in the first place, and that wasn’t me. I was the supposed seller of those arms.