Foreign arms smuggled into Kerala; TP murder case convict in Karnataka police custody

Bengaluru: Modern weapons, including guns, are being smuggled into Kerala from north-eastern states with the cops suspecting the role of a convict in the T P Chandrasekharan murder case behind the illegal arms deals.

The shocking finding was made following the seizure of foreign-made guns by Karnataka Police the other day while they were being smuggled into Kerala.

The cops took T K Rajeesh, serving a life sentence for the murder of Revolutionary Marxist Party leader T P Chandrasekharan, into custody from Kannur jail on Thursday and shifted him into a secret locality for interrogation. They suspect him to be part of the arms trafficking gang, having a wide network across the country and abroad.

CPM dissident T P Chandrasekharan was murdered in 2012 soon after he launched his own outfit.

The breakthrough

The arms smuggling racket came to light with the arrest of a Keralite in Bengaluru earlier this month.

The Cubbon Park police in Bengaluru arrested one Neeraj Joseph and seized the weapons being smuggled into Kerala on June 6. Joseph, who is an event management organizer, was held from Queens Road while he was waiting for an arms dealer. Three pistols and 99 live rounds were seized from his BMW car. During the interrogation, Neeraj told cops that he was acting on the behest of K Rajeesh and brought the guns for sale upon his direction.

The Bengaluru Police then moved in and took Rajeesh into custody from Kannur jail as part of the probe into the case. The cops confirmed that the foreign-made guns were first shipped into Nagaland from Myanmar.

Neeraj reportedly gave a statement that the guns were bought at a price of Rs 70,000 apiece.

The Bengaluru Police intensified the probe after it was revealed that the weapons were brought from a region where Bodo terrorists hold sway. They are also attempting to find out whether Neeraj and Rajeesh have links with such militant outfits.