The Q branch of the state police dealing with extremists, nabbed senior leader of the Sea Tigers Jayakumar (34) of Velvettithurai in Jaffna, along with two others at the Chennai international airport on Saturday night when they were found moving about in a suspicious manner.

A press note issued by the police said interrogation of Jayakumar and his two colleagues, James alias Raja (46) of Mannar in north-western Sri Lanka and Ravi Kumar (42) of Chennai, revealed that they were planning to smuggle a boat, computer peripherals, global positioning systems and swimming shoes for the LTTE.

On the basis of their interrogation, the police seized the boat at the coastal town of Mallipatnam in Thanjavur district.

Police said Jayakumar, who was with the sea wing of the LTTE from 1995 to 2006, came to India in a clandestine boat in February this year and settled in Thanjavur.

Through LTTE sea wing leader Susai and London-based rebel member Karuppiah, Jayakumar got Rs 4.8 lakh transferred through hawala route and used the money to buy the boat from one Raju with the help of Ravi Kumar. Raja was assigned the role of smuggling the boat to northern Sri Lanka.    Raja made three visits to India using his passport.

He has been here since October. He had bought computer peripherals, swimming shoes and global positioning systems for the LTTE and hid them in a box under beedi bundles. Police recovered Rs 4.78 lakh and Sri Lankan rupees 4340 besides four cell phones from the trio, the release said.