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Sri Lankan drug kingpin sent funds to Karachi, says NIA after probe into LTTE revival conspiracy
NIA, in its probe into conspiracy around the revival of LTTE, has found that Sri Lankan drug kingpin C Gunashekaran alias Guna had transferred illegal drug funds to the associates of Karachi-based notorious arms and drugs trafficker Haji Salim
The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is probing into a conspiracy to revive the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), has found that Sri Lankan drug kingpin C Gunashekaran alias Guna had transferred illegal drug funds to the associates of Karachi-based notorious arms and drugs trafficker Haji Salim, people familiar with the matter said.
The agency has discovered documentary and digital evidence — including crypto transactions, mobile data, and financial records linking Guna to cross-border drug trafficking, hawala networks, and LTTE’s operations — to prove there was a larger conspiracy to revive the proscribed outfit both in India and Sri Lanka, the people added.
NIA made the submissions before a court on October 17 while opposing a discharge plea filed by Guna, who was arrested along with nine other Sri Lankan nationals in Tamil Nadu in December 2022 in connection with the LTTE revival conspiracy case.
On March 15, 2022, Guna and Pushparajah alias Pookutti Kanna, another drug mafia from Sri Lanka, organised a meeting at a special detention camp in Trichy with other accused. They acted with a common criminal intention “to raise huge funds and arms through the illicit narcotic drugs trafficking and arms trade with the association of Haji Salim, a notorious drugs and arms trafficker of the neighbouring country to India and Sri Lanka for the revival of the proscribed terrorist organisation LTTE in India and Sri Lanka,” an officer requesting anonymity said, referring to NIA submission before the court.
“Digital evidence recovered from devices seized from Gunasekaran and his son, Thilipan, includes communications and financial records involving crores of rupees moved via cryptocurrency channels to foreign destinations, demonstrating direct LTTE links and fund mobilisation activities,” the officer added.
LTTE was formed in 1976 and emerged as one of the most lethal terrorist groups over the years. India banned the outfit after the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991. Since then, the ban on the group has been extended every five years.
The outfit suffered a military defeat in Sri Lanka in 2009 following the killing of its chief Velupillai Prabhakaran.
In June 2023, NIA filed a charge sheet in the conspiracy case against 10 Sri Lankan nationals, including Guna, and three Indian nationals.
A second officer said the NIA charge sheet already details “a well-orchestrated plan involving hawala networks, narcotic proceeds, and crypto-based transactions, intended to fund terrorist activities and support the revival of LTTE.”
Referring to the transfer of funds to Haji Salim, the second officer said: “A portion of sale proceeds (from drugs) was transferred by Thilipan through crypto currencies like USDT (tether) and crypto trading platforms like binance, to the associates of Salim operating from the UAE, for further purchase of drugs, and also arms and ammunitions.”
“These activities go far beyond mere ideological sympathy and amount to active participation and facilitation of a banned organisation’s revival,” the officer added, also declining to be named.
Salim is known to work with ISI, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and supervises smuggling of arms and drugs in India from the maritime route.
Officials said they are already in touch with Sri Lankan authorities with regard to activities of Guna and others.
While extending the ban on LTTE, the ministry of home affairs (MHA) in May 2024 said that the outfit was fostering a separatist tendency amongst the masses and enhancing the support base for it in India, particularly in Tamil Nadu, besides threatening the territorial integrity of the country.
“Even after its military defeat in May 2009 in Sri Lanka, LTTE has not abandoned the concept of ‘Eelam’ (a separate Tamil state) and has been clandestinely working towards the ‘Eelam’ cause by undertaking fund raising and propaganda activities and the remnant LTTE leaders or cadres have also initiated efforts to regroup the scattered activists and resurrect the outfit locally and internationally,” the MHA had said.
