By IANS
Chennai : The Tamil Nadu police have arrested Jayaraj Rathinam alias Vanniarasu for attempting to smuggle speedboat spare parts for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), officials said Thursday.
Ashok Kumar, superintendent of police from the anti-terrorist wing “Q” Branch, said the material was imported from Oslo and detected by the Revenue Intelligence Directorate during routine checks to trace import duty evasion.
“When we received a tip-off that the consignment was from Oslo and that it concerned boats, we swung into action and secured Rathinam. The material was not cleared from the port. We opened it in the presence of the accused and impounded the whole container,” Kumar said.
The offence carries a maximum sentence of two years’ simple imprisonment.
Kumar, however, indicated that Rathinam, 36, could be released on bail. “Though we cannot comment on what the defence counsel will do and how the magistrate will react, it is obvious that it is a small offence which does not merit sustained detention,” Kumar said.
Director General of Police Rajendran said: “This is a small incident – one among hundreds that take place in the state. We know that one man has been held. It is up to the investigating team to take the call on whether the man has to be questioned further on the basis of the seriousness of his offence.”
Rathinam, who belongs to the Dalit Panthers of India (DPI), was convicted in a murder case in the late 1990s. Though he is out on bail, he suppressed that vital information, got a passport and visited Sri Lanka thrice.
Tamil Nadu’s main opposition AIADMK has taken the arrest seriously.
“This is yet another instance of the DMK government going soft on the LTTE which had assassinated our former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi,” an AIADMK spokesman said.
DPI leader Thol Thirumavalavan, a known sympathiser of the LTTE, was not available for comment.