{"id":50711,"date":"2017-01-10T16:32:29","date_gmt":"2017-01-10T21:32:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=50711"},"modified":"2017-01-10T22:19:43","modified_gmt":"2017-01-11T03:19:43","slug":"murdered-tna-parliamentarian-ravirajs-family-still-waiting-for-justice-after-acquittal-of-persons-charged","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=50711","title":{"rendered":"Murdered TNA Parliamentarian Raviraj’s Family Still Waiting for Justice After Acquittal of Persons Charged"},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

Meera Srinivasan<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was the Christmas weekend last year. Praviinaa Raviraj woke up and looked at the newspapers. \u2018All accused released\u2019, the front-page headlines screamed.<\/p>\n

\"\"

acing it head-on: Sasikala Raviraj (right), wife of murdered TNA legislator Nadaraja Raviraj and her daughter Praviinaa. | Photo Credit: Picasa-Via The Hindu<\/p><\/div>\n

Beneath was a photograph of her father Nadarajah Raviraj \u2014 a Tamil legislator killed in 2006 \u2014 alongside that of three naval intelligence officers, celebrating with their families, following their acquittal in the case. \u201cIt just didn\u2019t feel right,\u201d the 25-year old said.<\/p>\n

The day before, a Sri Lankan court had cleared five men, including the three Navy officers, who were accused of assassinating Nadaraja Raviraj and his bodyguard on a busy thoroughfare in Colombo in November 2006. An all-Sinhalese jury said eyewitness testimony identifying the suspects was \u201cinsufficient\u201d.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Fear and distrust<\/strong><\/p>\n

For ten years, not once did Raviraj\u2019s family think about pursuing legal action against those who killed him. \u201cWhat we had was fear, and what we did not have was trust,\u201d his wife Sasikala Raviraj said. The country\u2019s long civil war was fast approaching its final and most brutal phase. Away from the battlefields, another dirty war was being waged by elements of the state using surveillance, \u2018white van\u2019 abductions and targeted killings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw no point in raising the issue. I preferred to lead a quiet life,\u201d Ms. Raviraj said. A mathematics teacher at a leading Colombo school, she focussed on the education of her children. While Praviinaa studied law, her brother chose medicine. Ms. Raviraj decided not to move out of their home, less than 200 m from where her husband was gunned down.<\/p>\n


\nFirst media interview<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well-nourished creepers adorned the short passage to their apartment. Seated in her living room, mildly lit and cosy, Ms. Raviraj spoke to The Hindu at length, her first media interview in the 10 years since her husband\u2019s death. \u201cHope you don\u2019t mind the smell of fried fish,\u201d she thoughtfully said, settling down. At one corner was a picture of Raviraj, a bearded man with a beaming smile.<\/p>\n

It was not an easy shift for the family \u2014 from quietly trying to come to terms with their tragedy, to encountering a sudden promise of justice, nearly a decade later.<\/p>\n

After defecting from the Rajapaksa government, Maithripala Sirisena and his backers campaigned hard on a platform of good governance to win the January 2015 polls. They promised to reopen long-pending cases and ensure justice is served. \u201cI trusted him… [and] voted for him,\u201d Ms. Raviraj said.<\/p>\n

When the poll results were out, Praviinaa Raviraj made a collage with photos of her father, well known editor Lasantha Wickrematunge and rugby star Wasim Thajudeen, who were all murdered between 2006 and 2012, when Mr. Rajapaksa was in power. \u201cI felt there was finally some hope for justice in all these cases. But now after the judgment, when I see people believed to be involved in my father\u2019s death walking freely, I feel back-stabbed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Few have doubts about who killed Mr. Raviraj. \u201cYou just walk down the road and ask common people, they will tell you,\u201d said his wife, in a matter-of-fact way. During investigation, Sri Lanka\u2019s CID and Attorney-General\u2019s Department gave evidence citing the State Intelligence Service\u2019s involvement in the murder. A former police constable who turned state witness claimed that former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa paid renegade LTTE commander Karuna Amman \u2014 who was later Minister in Rajapaksa\u2019s government \u2014 a substantial sum for the murder.<\/p>\n

Raviraj\u2019s murder was not totally unexpected. Following his legal practice and through his years as a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, Mr. Raviraj\u2019s \u201cpeace politics\u201d, which engaged the majority Sinhalese on the Tamils\u2019 perspective, made those in power uneasy. He would take to national television, speaking in broken Sinhala with little inhibition and reaching out to the majority community in their own language, winning admirers among them. \u201cHe did not know fear,\u201d his daughter recalls. He was used to frequent telephone threats, she says.<\/p>\n

A week before the murder, Ms. Raviraj received a call. She vividly remembers the voice at the other end asking: \u201cAre you ready to wear a white sari? Warn your husband.\u201d She immediately called her children to her room, showed them a diary with some phone numbers and said: \u201cIf anything happens to appa [father] or me, reach out to these people.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the morning of November 10, 2006, Praviinaa was sitting in her grade ten classroom when the physical education teacher walked in and asked the class teacher that she be excused. Praviinaa was taken to the principal\u2019s room. \u201cI saw the principal standing near the phone, her palm covering her mouth. I knew something was terribly wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the 10 years that followed, Praviinaa spoke to few friends about her father. \u201cI did not want anyone\u2019s sympathy. Even during the funeral, I saw my mother cry just once; she was so strong. I suppose I drew from her strength,\u201d she said. Breaking into a chuckle, Praviinaa said: \u201cWe don\u2019t talk like this in this house,\u201d turning to her mother who looked surprised. Her younger brother seldom speaks of what happened.<\/p>\n

After returning to Sri Lanka from the U.K. as a law graduate, Praviinaa has been reluctant to take up legal practice. \u201cI don\u2019t want to be someone practising black letter law without any ethics,\u201d she says. The political environment gave her little confidence in the legal system, prompting her to take up marketing.<\/p>\n

Deep disappointment<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Tuesday (January 10), Ms. Raviraj\u2019s lawyer will appeal against the Colombo High Court\u2019s order. \u201cNot because I have high expectations of my husband\u2019s murderers being brought to justice. But it is to express our deep disappointment at the judgment,\u201d Ms. Raviraj said, adding that the government need not have opened the case if it was not committed to a just outcome. \u201cWhy did they?\u201d she asked, raising her voice.<\/p>\n

Echoing her disillusionment and anger, Praviinaa said: \u201cIf you do take it up, do something right about it… not having him around to see me graduate, or to pick me up late from a party all these years… it feels terrible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Courtesy:The Hindu<\/em><\/p>\n

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By Meera Srinivasan It was the Christmas weekend last year. Praviinaa Raviraj woke up and looked at the newspapers. \u2018All accused released\u2019, the front-page headlines screamed. Beneath was a photograph of her father Nadarajah Raviraj \u2014 a Tamil legislator killed in 2006 \u2014 alongside that of three naval intelligence officers, celebrating with their families, following …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Murdered TNA Parliamentarian Raviraj’s Family Still Waiting for Justice After Acquittal of Persons Charged’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50711"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50711"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50740,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50711\/revisions\/50740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}