New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Thursday arrested another accused in the LTTE revival conspiracy case involving illegal drugs and arms trade in Sri Lanka and India. With the arrest of Lingam A alias Adi Lingam, a key conspirator in the case in Tamil Nadu, a total of 14 persons have so far landed in the NIA net in the Srilankan illegal drugs and arms trade case. The case was registered in July 2022.
An official spokesperson said, "A resident of Chennai, Lingam was a close associate of another accused, Gunasekharan, and acted as a benami for the latter’s illegal transactions relating to laundering the ‘proceeds of drugsand arms trade’ in India and Sri Lanka."Officials said that Lingam had also forged I'd documents for members of the racket in an attempt to legitimise their illegal stay in India, according to NIA investigations."All the accused in the case were dealing actively in the illegal drug trade in India and Sri Lanka. They were using the money earned from the drugs trade for funding acquisition and amassing of weapons for the revival of LTTE in the two countries," officials said.NIA investigations have revealed that the illegal narcotics were sourced from one Haji Salim, an absconder suspected to be based in Pakistan.
In 2019, the Union Home Ministry extended the ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for another five years over its strong anti-India posture and threat to the security of Indian nationals. Extending the ban under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, MHA in the notification said, "The activities of LTTE revenant cadres, dropouts, sympathisers, supporters have been traced out recently in Tamilnadu suggests that the cadres sent to Tamilnadu would ultimately be utilised by the LTTE for unlawful activities." (IANS)
