The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday carried out a series of raids across Tamil Nadu in a LTTE inspired arms seizure case, NIA said in a statement on Friday.

Raids were conducted at the premises belonging to suspects, including functionaries of the Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK), a Tamil nationalist party which emerged as the third largest in the 2021 assembly elections in Tamil Nadu. The raids were conducted in Chennai, Trichy, Coimbatore, Sivaganga and Tenkasi.

“Extensive searches by the agency led to the seizure of one laptop, seven mobiles, eight SIM/memory cards and four pen drives, along with incriminating documents and books related to the LTTE terror organisation and its self-styled slain supremo, V Prabhakaran,” the agency said.

A state youth wing organiser of NTK in Chennai, I Karthik filed an urgent writ petition in the Madras high court against the summons issued to him by the NIA without giving him sufficient time to appear. He said in his petition that given the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the NIA is arm twisting NTK.

A bench of justices M S Ramesh and Sunder Mohan disposed of the case since NIA submitted that they were not planning to arrest the NTK cadre.

The case was first lodged by the state police following the arrest of two men, Naveen Chakravorty and Sanjay Prakash, during vehicle check in Salem on May 19, 2022. They were found possessing two pistols, ammunition, gun powder, etc., and were subsequently arrested.

“Investigations revealed that the duo was inspired by the LTTE, a proscribed terrorist organisation,” the NIA said. “They wanted to establish an outfit similar to the LTTE and wage an armed struggle in Tamil Nadu,” the agency said.

One more accused Kabilar alias Kabilan, was also arrested in this case. The case was taken over by NIA on July 25, 2022 and investigations are continuing.

(With inputs from agencies)