LTTE denies accepting money from Rajapaksa

Colombo, Oct 2: The Tamil Tiger rebels have rejected the allegations of accepting money from President Mahinda Rajapaksa as part of a secret deal to block Tamil voters in the North and the East from exercising their franchise to ensure his victory in the 2005 presidential elections.

''There is absolutely no truth in the wide-spread year long allegation among the Southern political parties that we entered into a deal with Mahinda Rajapaksa and accepted a large sum of money during and after the 2005 presidential polls,'' LTTE's political wing head, S P Thamilselvan said in an interview with the Jaffna based Uthayan Tamil language newspapers today.

''These allegations are absolutely untrue and our organisation did not have any such deals with any Southern political party. These are usual campaigns carried out by the Southern political parties for their own power struggle using our name,'' he said.

The allegation of President Rajapaksa entering into a secret deal with the LTTE and offering a large sum of money was debated in 225-member Parliament and a Parliamentary Select Committee had been set up to probe such allegations.

UNI