Shamindra Ferdinando

Attorney-at-law, Major (retd.) Ajith Prasanna, who appears for a group of police commandos and an ordinary policeman arrested for their alleged involvement in the killing of five Tamil students in Trincomalee on January 2, 2006, yesterday told The Island that those who had been pushing the government on the issue weren’t facilitating Sri Lanka’s efforts to get down two eyewitnesses to give evidence at the Trincomalee Magistrate Court.

Responding to a query by The Island, the lawyer said that several attempts by the Attorney General’s Department to establish contact with the two eyewitnesses had failed.

Y. Punkalalogan and G. Kovulraj, believed to be living in Australia and the UK, respectively. Their families, too, hadn’t been helpful, the lawyer alleged. It would be the responsibility on the part of the External Affairs Ministry to explore ways and means of getting them down with the help of the Australian and British High Commissions, the lawyer said.

Ajith Prasanna, formerly of the Sixth Battalion of the Sri Lanka Sinha Regiment (6SLSR) had to give up frontline duties after being wounded in fighting at Atchuveli in the Jaffna peninsula on October 1, 1995.

The lawyer said that it would be necessary to establish the circumstances under which the two eyewitnesses had left the country during the conflict.

The Trincomalee massacre was among five major cases investigated by a special presidential commission in 2008. Major Prasanna was part of a team of lawyers including attorney-at-law, Gomin Dayasri and attorney-at-law S.L. Gunasekera, representing the interests of the policemen accused of the Trincomalee massacre.

The names and the dates of birth of the five victims are: (i) Manoharan Ragihar, DoB 22.09.1985, (ii) Yogarajah Hemachchandra, DoB 04.03.1985, (iii) Logitharajah Rohan, DoB 07.04.1985, (iv) Thangathurai Sivanantha, DoB 06.04.1985, and (v) Shanmugarajah Gajendran, DoB 16.09.1985.

Asked to explain the failure on the part of authorities to locate fathers of Manoharan Ragihar and Shanmugarajah Gajendran, Dr. Kasippillai Manoharan and Yaiyamuttu Shanmugarajah, respectively, lawyer Ajith Prasanna recalled the circumstances under which the parents of the two victims had made representations in Geneva on the sidelines of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC)sessions in March 2013. They called for an impartial investigation into the incident, while accusing the government of Sri Lanka of turning a blind eye to their plea for action against those responsible for the heinous crime. Following their representations and the intervention of Human Rights Minister, Mahinda Samarasinghe, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) initiated an inquiry leading to the arrest of the suspects on July 4, 2013.

Prasanna said that authorities hadn’t been able to find out the whereabouts of Dr. Manoharan, widely believed to be abroad and Shanmugarajah. In fact, at least seven important witnesses, including the two eyewitnesses hadn’t come forward to give evidence, thereby seriously affecting the proceedings, the lawyer said. According to him, the suspects arrested on February 12, 2006 were released in April same year in the absence of evidence, he said, adding that the then Attorney General C.R. de Silva directed that the investigation c be resumed in case prosecutor came across new evidence.

The lawyer said that when they were taken in again last July, he had made representations to Trincomalee Magistrate Court regarding the failure of the CID to produce new evidence as directed by the former Attorney General.

When the case was taken up before the Trincomalee Magistrate Court yesterday, the Court was told of the failure to locate key witnesses. The case will be taken up again on April 24, 2014.

COURTESY:THE ISLAND