Coimbatore: The CB-CID recently recovered a country-made pistol used by Sri Lankan underworld don Angoda Lokka from an isolated spot near Madurai -Sivaganga districts border. Lokka died of cardiac arrest in Coimbatore in July 2020.
“We learned that the pistol, along with five live rounds, was buried on the spot by Madurai-based lawyer D Sivakamai Sundari. Her father is a LTTE sympathiser,” a CB-CID officer said.
In August 2020, Sivakami Sundari, her friend Dhyaneswaran and Lokka’s girlfriend Amani Dhanji were arrested by the Coimbatore police for hiding the identity of Lokka and cremating his dead body in Madurai.
Meanwhile, a CB-CID official said there was a nexus between former LTTE operative Satkunam alias Sabesan, 47, and Lokka.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested Sabesan last October for his involvement in smuggling drugs and arms from Pakistan.
Later, Coimbatore CB-CID officials took him under custody, along with Chinna Suresh, 35, an underworld don in Sri Lanka, and Sounderrajan, 25, of Chennai, for harbouring Lokka and his close aide Chanuka Thananayake alias Ladiya.
P Sivakumar, deputy superintendent of police, CB-CID, Coimbatore, and his team arrested Ladiya, a native of Athurugiriya in Sri Lanka, and T Gopalakrishnan, 46, of Bengaluru, in last November. Gopalakrishnan aided Lokka and Ladiya in hawala transactions.
Recently, CB-CID had taken the custody of Ladiya and Gopalakrishnan for five days.
During the inquiry, the duo revealed that Sabesan and Chinna Suresh had left Sri Lanka after they were involved in a series of crimes against rival gang and drug smuggling. Lokka and Ladiya, who also had their hands in drug smuggling, moved to India subsequently. All the four were in contact with each other in India and they smuggled heroin to Sri Lanka from different countries, the official said.
“After Lokka’s death in July 2020, Ladiya took over the drug smuggling business,” the official added. (Times of India)
