Chennai: Nearly two months after the arrest of two men from Salem district in Tamil Nadu for possessing a pistol, live rounds, and walkie-talkies, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has started investigating the case.

The NIA took over the case as the men allegedly confessed that drawing inspiration from Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) movement they were planning to carry out guerilla attacks on stone quarries. The arrested duo, who are identified as M. Naveen Chakravarthy (25) of Kichipalayalam and J. Sanjay Prakash (24) of Sevapet in Salem district, had formed an outfit World Tamil Justice Court (WTJC). They reportedly contacted a former intelligence operative of the LTTE through a Clubhouse app.

The arrested men were schoolmates. They told the investigating officers from Q branch that they wanted to attack stone quarries that destroy mountains and nature, bring water from Kerala, fight drug trafficking and stop sexual harassment of women.

During investigation, the sleuths of Q branch found that the accused had taken a house on rent at Chettichavadi in Salem and were in the process of making pistols using YouTube and other videos. The ‘Q’ branch sleuths said, “they converted a portion of the house into a workshop, bought scrap steel, and used local lathes claiming that they were working on a college project.”

The police said that they bought the ingredients needed to make live rounds online and also bought walkie-talkies online to communicate with each other.

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It is pertinent to note that some 50 days ago the Omalur police had arrested the duo with their two-wheeler and a pistol with live rounds. during a routine vehicle check in the town. During questioning, the arrested youth revealed that they were on their way to attack a stone quarry at Theevatipatti.