NIA files charge sheet against 13 in India-Sri Lanka arms, drugs smuggling case

New Delhi, June 16 Moving ahead with its probe, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday said that it has filed a charge sheet against 13 persons, including Sr Lankan nationals, in the India-Sri Lanka illegal drugs and arms trade case relating to attempts to revive the LTTE in India and Sri Lanka.

The anti-terror probe agency said the charge sheet was filed on Thursday against the arrested accused for the illegal drug trade to fund, amass, and stash weapons for the revival of LTTE in India and Sri Lanka.

The agency has named three Ind in the charge sheet Selvakumar M., Vigneshwara Perumal alias Vicky, and Iyyapan Nandhu, while the accused Sri Lankan nationals include C. Gunashekharaan alias Guna, and Pushparajah alias Pookutti Kanna, who allegedly ran a drug syndicate in the island nation and have been accused of working with Pakistani drugs and arms supplier Haji Salim, the man behind the narcotics trafficking in India and close to Dawood Ibrahim and the ISI.

As per the agency sources, Salim mostly controls the drug syndicate from Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan's Baloch areas.

"The drugs were being sourced from Salim, who is suspected to be residing in Pakistan. The accused persons were using foreign WhatsApp numbers to carry out the clandestine trade," the NIA said in a statement.

It also said that its probe had also exposed conspiracy to fund the revival of LTTE through drug trade. They were arrested at the Trichy Special Camp, the agency said.

"Investigations had further revealed that the accused were using the proceeds of crime to live a lavish life. Several mobile phones with pre-activated Indian SIM cards were also seized from them along with various digital devices, documents relating to drug transactions, cash to the tune of Rs 80 lakh and nine gold bars.

"The cash and gold were proceeds from the sale of narcotics and were being channelled through hawala networks between Chennai and Sri Lanka. Several transactions using Crypto platforms were also unearthed," the NIA added.

Besides Guna and Kanna, the NIA has named eight other Sri Lankans in the charge sheet - Mohammad Asmin, Alahapperumaga Sunil Ghamini Fonseka, Stanly Kennady Fernando, Dhanukka Roshan, Ladiya, Vella Suranga, Thilipan, and Danarathnam Nilukshan.

While Vicky and Nandhu were arrested in April this year, the others were arrested in December 2022.

aks/vd