TMVP’s Charan to be extradited
Main suspect in Raviraj’s murder:
CID establishes complicity:
By Uditha Kumarasinghe
The
Colombo Chief Magistrate has issued an arrest warrant on Sivakanthan
Vivekanandan alias Charan, who had migrated to Switzerland, and plans
are underway to have him urgently extradited on the basis of his serious
involvement in the killing of TNA Parliamentarian, Nadarajah Raviraj.
Raviraj was shot and killed close to his Colombo residence in
November 2006.
The government’s report submitted to the 133rd session of the Inter
Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Geneva recently, for the first time, shed
details about the killing of Raviraj as well as Joseph Pararajasingham,
both involving the LTTE breakaway group, the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai
Pulikal (TMVP).
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has established the
complicity of Charan in the killing of the TNA Parliamentarian. Charan,
now a prime suspect in the murder probe, has been a member of TMVP, an
armed paramilitary group of ex-LTTE fighters.
The CID investigations were assisted in the first instance by a team
of Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) from UK’s New Scotland Yard.
After initial investigations, the British team had returned to the
UK, carrying with them, certain exhibits recovered from the scene of the
murder. The CID has now been informed that examinations performed on the
products/exhibits taken to the UK...have resulted in the production of
DNA profiles and fingerprints that could help solve the murder mystery.
Sources said, it was now necessary to solicit further assistance from
the British team to carry out further investigations, particularly for
DNA comparisons of the suspects in custody.
On the advice of the British investigators, the process has been
initiated to forward a Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) request to the UK
authorities to enlist further assistance in the ongoing investigations.
Following Raviraj’s murder on November 10, 2006, the CID
investigators arrested seven suspects. Four suspects had been granted
bail, while the other three suspects, Lt. Commander Hettiarachchi
Mudiyanselage Prasad Chandana Kumara Hettiarachchi the of Sri Lankan
Navy, Petty Officer Deliwala Gedara Gamini Senevirathne of Sri Lanka
Navy and Police Constable 43554/ Wijayawickrama Manamperrige Sampath
Preethi Viraj (under interdiction) are currently held in remand prison. |