Tamil Nadu police on Sunday busted a suspected LTTE ring trying to smuggle high-power communications equipment and boat repair materials to Sri Lanka's North.

Sleuths of the 'Q' branch of Tamil Nadu Police on Sunday arrested two Lankan refugees and their associate, a youth from Madurai, while trying to smuggle walkie-talkies and resin to Jaffna.

Working on a tip-off, the police team intercepted a Tata Sumo on Raja Mill Road in Madurai at 1.00 pm and arrested P. Viji alias Jayaraj of Pesalai and T. Chinnavan alias Padmarasa, a native of Jaffna. Police seized 44 sets of walkie-talkies (ICOM-brand very high frequency trans-receivers of Japanese make) and Rs. 4.59 lakhs.

Viji had come to India as a refugee in 1990 and was lodged in Periyar Nagar camp in Madurai. Later, he was shifted to Koodal Nagar camp.

An accused in a murder case, Viji has been missing from the camp.

Chinnavan had come to the country in 2006 and was staying in the Mandapam camp in Ramanathapuram district.

The duo had engaged S. Senthil, who owns the seized vehicle, for transporting the contraband. They were involved in smuggling various commodities out of the country by sea for the past few months, it is learnt.

Based on Senthil's confession, police seized 175 litres of resin, meant for repairing boats, from his house.

Over the past one year, Q Branch and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) have busted several LTTE-linked smuggling rackets in Tamil Nadu. In January last year, five LTTE supporters, most of them refugees, were arrested with ball bearings meant for making bombs. They had sourced the ball bearings from Mumbai.

In September 2007, police found that 200 refugees were missing from Mandapam camp, where 4,800 of them are lodged, and two dozen refugees were found missing from Puzhal refugee camp near Chennai.

The DRI had seized a huge consignment of engine components of speed boats at Chennai Port last December.

Courtesy: TOI