Poison seeds were Salem duo’s standby for cyanide: NIA

CHENNAI: The two youths from Salem against whom the National Investigation Agency has started a probe for their LTTE leanings, had found plants and seeds to be used as poison instead of cyanide, which was commonly used by the Tigers engaged in the civil war in Sri Lanka.

The duo — Naveen Chakravarthy, 24, a college dropout and Sanjay Prakash, 25, a BE graduate in computer science, from Salem — had come under NIA radar after they were arrested by Omalur police in May this year for possessing a country-made pistol, live rounds, a walkie-talkie etc.

They had stocked extract of a particular plant and seeds of another plant as poison to use the way LTTE members used cyanide, NIA sources said. Tigers used to carry cyanide and consume it to kill themselves to make sure they are not captured alive.

During the searches conducted by the National Investigating Agency on October 7 at two locations at Salem and Sivagangai incriminating materials, including digital devices (compact discs related to LTTE), books on LTTE, photos of slain LTTE leader Prabhakaran, other LTTE leaders, invoice/bills for the purchase of materials used for manufacturing of illegal firearms, ammunition and explosive substances, seeds for making poison and jungle survival kits were seized by the investigators, NIA said on Sunday.

Apart from their house in Salem, NIA had also searched the house of one man named Vignesh in Sivagangai, who was believed to have worked as an intermediary between them and old LTTE members in the island nation.

The two had allegedly confessed earlier that they were inspired by the banned LTTE outfit and were planning to start their guerrilla movement called World Tamil Justice Court (WTJC), to carry out guerrilla attacks against illegal stone quarries to stop drug trafficking, end sexual harassment of women and to bring water from Kerala. The two had taken a house on rent in Chettichavadi in Salem where they watched YouTube and made weapons. They allegedly made bullets after buying ingredients online. They also bought a walkie-talkie online to communicate with each other.