Chennai, Aug 4 (BPNS)
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has commenced the investigation of the case related to two youths arrested for processing pistols, live rounds, and walkie talkie during a routine vehicle checkup in Tamil Nadu. The premier investigation agency has taken over the case as the youths had claimed 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).
The youths, 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 drop out Sanjay is a BE graduate in Computer Science and had worked with an IT firm. The duo was classmates in school. The Youths had named themselves Freedom and Oast to communicate and to mislead the police, cops said.
The youths, according to officers of the ‘Q’ branch had confessed that they were inspired by books and other literature on 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 pistol using YouTube and other videos. The ‘Q’ branch sleuths also said that the youths converted a portion of the home into a workshop, bought scrap steel, and used local lathes to convert it into spare parts claiming that they were working on a college project.
Police said that they bought ingredients necessary to make live rounds online and also bought a walkie-talkie online to communicate with each other.
The Omalur police during a routine check had arrested them with pistol and on questioning found 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 youth and their claim that they were in touch with a former LTTE operative. The premier investigation agency will also probe whether the youths had received some funding from any external sources as the expenses they had for making pistol and live bullets.
It may be noted that the NIA arrested a former LTTE intelligence operative Satkunam alias Sabesan in October 2021 after he and some accomplices had alleged involvement in smuggling of drugs and arms from Pakistan to Sri Lanka. They had confessed of their close links with Sri Lankan don Angoda Lokka who had died in Coimbatore while staying in disguise.
A woman who was a Canadian national with Tamil origins was arrested while trying to board a flight to Mumbai from Chennai who was on her way to withdraw money lying dormant in a nationalized bank account that belonged to associations linked to LTTE. The NIA has taken over the investigation in this case as there were intelligence reports of the defunct LTTE trying to use the soil of Tamil Nadu to regroup themselves.
