LTTE consignment of explosives intercepted says The Hindu

[Thursday, January 10, 2008 - 5.05 GMT]   

The ‘Q’ Branch on Tuesday intercepted a consignment of explosives bound for Sri Lanka and took six persons into custody, who admitted that they were meant for use by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) The Hindu reported today. 

This is the full text of The Hindu report 

Explosives meant for LTTE intercepted
S. Vijay Kumar

MADURAI: The ‘Q’ Branch on Tuesday intercepted a consignment of explosives bound for Sri Lanka and took six persons into custody, who admitted that they were meant for use by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Based on intelligence inputs of an attempt to smuggle large quantities of detonators, a team intercepted two persons moving in a suspicious manner near the railway station here. S. Sivakrishnan alias Nandan (30) of Sri Lanka and S. Muthuramalingam (30) of Kamuthi were found to be in possession of 5,000 detonators concealed in a travel bag.

During interrogation, Sivakrishnan confessed he had delivered a consignment of explosives to the LTTE on January 3 through K. Murugapandi (27) of Kamuthi and a couple of agents. The police arrested Murugapandi from a lodge in the city. He admitted to smuggling as instructed by an LTTE leader. Investigators said Murugapandi was paid Rs.1.5 lakh through a hawala transaction. The money has been recovered.

Special teams formed to apprehend others involved in the smuggling arrested autorickshaw driver R. Raja (31), M. Poo Murugan (21) of Kadaladi, S. Chandra (25) and M. Senthilmurugan (27) of Mudukulathur. Those arrested were produced in a city court and remanded to judicial custody. Police are on the lookout for Raghu of Chennai, who allegedly supplied the explosives.