Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan alias Col Karuna Amman, one time LTTE commander turned Deputy Minister in the Mahinda Rajapaksa Government told the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) in Sri Lanka on Monday that the assassination of the Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was a ‘big mistake’ committed by the LTTE. The eight member commission has been appointed by the Sri Lankan President in May 2010 to look into incidents from the time of ceasefire between the Government and the LTTE in 2002 till the end of war in May 2009, their attendant concerns and to recommend measures to ensure that there will be no recurrence of such a situation. The Commission is chaired by the former Attorney General Chitta Ranjan de Silva. Col Karuna's defection along with 6000 cadres from the LTTE six years ago is considered by political and diplomatic observers here as one of the major reasons which paved the way for their military defeat in 2009. Now a vice-president of Sri Lanka's governing party, Karuna Amman has been dogged by allegations that he has abused human rights as the LTTE commander of the East. He admitted before the Commission that almost 20 years ago, some of his LTTE comrades had killed more than 600 surrendering policemen in Eastern Sri Lanka. However, he denied being present in the region when the fateful incident took place. Muralitharan also alleged that Norway had a hidden agenda during the ceasefire agreement. ‘Norway wanted to achieve something for them through the ceasefire agreement which was a reason for their participation in the agreement process,’ Muralitharan said.