MORE INFORMATION emerged yesterday as to how exactly the police came to find the body of President Tassos Papadopoulos in the new Strovolos cemetery on Monday, with family sources saying they tipped off the police, but the police saying they were on the suspects’ trail all along.

According to Phileleftheros newspaper, it all started on Monday, when an Indian man first called Papadopoulos’ former presidential bodyguard Melis Ioannou.

The man, arrested on Tuesday night and identified yesterday as Sabrjit Singh, 31, is said to have explained “in broken Greek” that he had information where the remains could be found and asked for €200,000. Ioannou reportedly paid no attention to the call, as similar calls had been made regularly over the last three months.

Singh is said to have stated in his subsequent voluntary statement to the police that he continued to call Ioannou all day, gradually dropping the amount he was asking for to €100,000, but still was not heeded. Police spokesman Michalis Katsounotos yesterday said no money had been exchanged between the two parties.

Eventually, he asked to speak directly to Papadopoulos’ widow Fotini, upon which Ioannou passed the phone to stepdaughter Maria Yiorkadji. Singh reportedly told Yiorkadji that he knew where the remains were buried and asked for financial and other help to leave Cyprus because he feared for his life.

After lengthy discussion between family members, Yiorkadji agreed to meet the Indian man with Ioannou, but without involving the police.

Following the meeting, the suspect is said to have phoned the family again, this time giving the crucial details of the remains’ whereabouts.

Two members of the Papadopoulos family then reportedly went to the named spot in the new Strovolos cemetery in Tseri, where they saw part of a shoe sticking out of the earth, which they recognised as belonging to the ex-President. They then called the police.

In his voluntary statement to the police, Singh resolved one question that was still puzzling the investigators.

The first indications, given the freshly-dug appearance of the soil covering the remains, were that they could only have been moved there five or six days previously.

He is said to have told the police that he and his accomplice, Mamas Kitas, had taken the remains straight to the cemetery in Tseri after removing them from their original grave in Deftera on December 11, but had only thrown a little soil over them before replacing the tombstone.

He said that roughly a month ago, they decided to go back and cover the remains with more soil, leading to the police investigators’ mistaken conclusion.

Speaking to state broadcaster CyBC yesterday, Katsounotos insisted that, rather than simply acting on a tip-off by the family, the police had made Tuesday’s arrests as a result of an intense investigation which had begun the day the theft was discovered last December.

He said that from February 2, the police were “on constant alert” and efforts were stepped up to include helicopter surveillance of suspects, based on “very strong indications” and “clear information” which, he insisted, led to Tuesday’s arrests.

The spokesman added that Singh was apprehended as a result of every phone booth “from Nicosia to Larnaca” having been staked out by police patrols.

The family will rebury the remains of Tassos Papadopoulos in Deftera cemetery this afternoon at 4.00pm.