Salem Arms Case: NIA Takes Over Probe On Suspected LTTE Sympathisers

During interrogation by the 'Q' branch police, the two youth revealed that they were planning to carry out guerilla attacks on stone quarries inspired by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

National Investigation Agency personnel (File Photo)

Source : PTI

Chennai: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has commenced probing the case of two men arrested for possessing a pistol, live rounds and walkie-talkies during a routine vehicle check in Tamil Nadu. The agency has taken over the case as the men had revealed during interrogation by the 'Q' branch police that they were planning to carry out guerilla attacks on stone quarries inspired by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

M. Naveen Chakravarthy (25) of Kichipalayalam and J. Sanjay Prakash (24) of Sevapet in Salem district had formed an outfit World Tamil Justice Court (WTJC), and were reportedly in touch with a man through Clubhouse who claimed to be a former intelligence operative of the LTTE.

While Naveen is a school dropout Sanjay is a BE graduate in Computer Science and had worked with an IT firm. The duo were classmates in school. They had taken the code names 'Freedom' and 'Oast' to communicate and to mislead the police, the police said.

The youths, according to officers of the 'Q' branch, had confessed that they were inspired by books and other literature on the LTTE and wanted to attack stone quarries that destroy mountains and nature, bring water from Kerala, fight drug trafficking and stop sexual harassment of women.

The police found that they had taken a house on rent at Chettichavadi in Salem and were in the process of making pistols using YouTube and other videos. The 'Q' branch sleuths said that they converted a portion of the house into a workshop, bought scrap steel, and used local lathes claiming that they were working on a college project.

The police said that they bought the ingredients needed to make live rounds online and also bought walkie-talkies online to communicate with each other.

The Omalur police which had arrested them, on questioning learnt that they were on their way to attack a stone quarry at Theevatipatti. The youths were arrested around 50 days ago with their two-wheeler and a pistol with live rounds.

The NIA took over the investigation following the confessions of the youths and their claim that they were in touch with a former LTTE operative. The agency will also probe whether they had received some funding from any external sources for making pistols and live bullets.

The NIA had arrested a former LTTE intelligence operative Satkunam alias Sabesan in October 2021 after he and some accomplices had confessed to their involvement in smuggling of drugs and arms from Pakistan to Sri Lanka. They had revealed their close links with Sri Lankan don Angoda Lokka who had died in Coimbatore while staying there in disguise.

A woman who was a Canadian national with Tamil origins was arrested while trying to board a flight to Mumbai from Chennai while on her way to withdraw money from a dormant nationalized bank account that belonged to associations linked to the LTTE. The NIA has taken over the investigation in this case as there were intelligence reports of the defunct LTTE trying to use Tamil Nadu to regroup.

--IANS
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