A murder being unravelled

Arrest of more military personnel imminent as investigations uncover the gory details of Eknaligoda’s disappearance:

by Ranil Wijayapala

CID investigations into the disappearance of cartoonist cum journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda, which was moving at a slow pace is now a hot topic, with the lable ‘patriot’ and ‘traitor’ on those connected to the incident. Investigations during the Rajapaksa regime appeased those in favour and humiliated others who opposed the regime.

As the investigations progress, certain people are perturbed as to what is beginning to be revealed about the disappearance of Prageeth Eknaligoda after he was abducted on that fateful day on January 23, 2010.

Silent

Some extremist organisations that were silent, after the Rajapaksa Government was defeated, have suddenly awoken and was trying their best to defend military intelligence personnel now in custody over the Eknaligoda disappearance case, likening it to another Millennium City under the Ranil Wickremesinghe Government of 2002.

Progress made by the CID showed that extremist groups of the likes of the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) were defending those who gave orders to Army intelligence. The CID was on the verge of identifying the people who had ordered the abduction of Eknaligoda, two days prior to the 2010 January Presidential election, when the BBS went all out to thwart the attempt.

CID investigations revealed that it was the same Army intelligence officers who were involved in the disappearance of Eknaligoda in January 2010 who were involved in his abduction on August 28, 2009.

Analysis of mobile numbers traced in the 2010 abduction incident tallied with telephone numbers traced in connection with the August 27, 2009. These calls were recorded as being taken from Habarana to Colombo and near the lane of his residence in Kottawa, where he was abducted in the early hours of August 28.

Contacts

Army intelligence personnel had made use of the contacts Eknaligoda had maintained with members of the LTTE intelligence wing, to fix him as an LTTE agent. Investigations also revealed that Eknaligoda had developed this contact, when he visited the Madhu church in 2002 with the late Dr. Jayalath Jayawardena, who kept close contact with the LTTE, as Minister in charge of Resettlement in the Ranil Wickremesinghe administration.

In Madhu, Eknaligoda had met Tamil politician Selvam Adaikkalanathan who had introduced Thavendran, a political wing member of the LTTE at that time.

Sumathipala alias, Suresh Kumar alias Thavendran, an LTTE member who had lost his Sinhala mother and Tamil father due to Army and Navy firing, in separate incidents, joined the LTTE at a young age and served as a militant in the LTTE. He later suffered injuries while fighting against the Indian Army. He had lost several toes in a Jhonny mine explosion and joined the LTTE political wing after recovering from his wounds.

Fluent in Sinhala

Thavendran, who was fluent in Sinhala was later invited to join the LTTE intelligence wing. At the end of the war, on May 16, 2009, Thavendran had surrendered to the Sri Lanka Army and had been extensively interrogated by military intelligence and kept with them to get his assistance for operations and to break through to his southern contacts.

Army intelligence officils had wanted to get Eknaligoda to Habarana to meet Thavendran on August 27, 2009. Although Thavendran was working with them, he had not divulged this to Eknaligoda and had pretended that he had escaped from the Wanni, was in hiding and trying to flee the country. He had asked Eknaligoda to assist him to obtain a passport.

At Habarana, Thavendran had introduced Nathan to Eknaligoda, saying he was a friend of his and working at the Dambulla Economic Centre as a trader.

He wanted Eknaligoda to get his passport from Colombo and to hand it over to Nathan. It was Corporal Priyantha Kumara, who was attached to the Giritale 3 MIC camp, who was introduced to Eknaligoda as a Tamil. Eknaeigoda agreed to assist him to get the job done.

It was a ploy adopted by Army intelligence to track Eknaligoda and they had followed his bus from Habarana to Colombo and then to Kottawa and thereafter abducted him in the lane leading to his residence in Kottawa, in the early hours of August 28, in a white van.

Eknaligoda was blindfolded and taken to a place with a concrete floor, after a one and a half hour journey and later released around 12.30 p.m. on August 28. Ekaneligoda lodged a complaint with the police but it was ignored due to pressure from the top, and no action was taken.

It was at the height of the Presidential Election campaign in 2010 that officers attached to 3 MIC camp in Giritale planned the second abduction of Eknaligoda through ‘Thavarasa’, Corporal Ran Banda attached to the Giritale MIC camp.

Phone contact

They had contacted Eknaligoda on January 23 and had left the Giritale camp in two vehicles to meet him in Colombo. The analysis of phone calls to Eknaligoda’s mobile phone, confirmed that they were in contact with Eknaligoda throughout their journey and their mobile numbers were eventually traced through the Pelawatte telephone tower.

After abducting him in Colombo, he had been taken to the Giritale camp. Investigations confirmed that ten military intelligence personnel,including Lt. Colonel Shammi Kumararatna were responsible for the abduction, detention and disappearance of Eknaligoda.

Staff Sergeant Ranbanda of the 3 MIC camp had revealed that Eknaligoda was taken to the camp in the night and questioned over some books written by him on the Rajapaksa family and about a ‘Viridu’ cassette and blind-folded and thereafter manacled. He was later taken from the camp, on the morning of January 24. The mobile phone analysis of the incident confirmed that he was taken to a place in the vicinity of Akkaraipattu, and executed.

The CID is yet to get details from the Akkaraipattu telephone tower, to decide on the exact location where Eknaligoda was executed. It has been confirmed that it was the military intelligence personnel who had executed him and not any other faction.

It has been confirmed that Eknaligoda was executed to appease the political interests of the then government and his abduction was not connected to any other issue relating to national security.

The 3 MIC camp in Giritale, under Lt. Col Shammi Kumararatna had been run on orders from the top defence hierarchy. Even the intelligence chief at the time and the Directorate of Military Intelligence had no control over their activities. The statement by the former Directorate of Military Intelligence to the CID had confirmed these facts.

Although Lt. Col Shammi Kumararatna claimed he had no direct involvement in the case, his mobile phone number had been tracked all the way from Giritale to Colombo and back. His claim that he was on leave from January 20 to 26, proved false as there are records conforming he had been at the camp during that time.

It was through the analysis of the mobile phone details of Eknaligoda that the CID made a breakthrough in the investigations. It was Sudha, another ex-LTTE cadre serving with the military intelligence who had divulged that it was Thavendran who had handled the case. It was through their statements that the CID subsequently arrested the military personnel.

The CID had sought Court intervention to obtain Sri Lanka Army assistance to get the details and documents in support of the investigations. Records of vehicular movements and many other details are yet to be furnished by the Army to complete investigations.

Mobile phone details

The CID is yet to get details of mobile phone number issued to these personnel, as only two numbers were confirmed to have been used by them for official purposes. Most of the mobile numbers used in this case were registered under ex-LTTE cadres’ identity card numbers.

Based on mobile phone analysis, the CID will arrest four more Army intelligence personnel in the coming days, taking the total number of intelligence personnel arrested over the incident to ten. Six Army personnel were now in custody over the incident.

Even for mobile data analysis, the CID has got assistance from Dialog mobile service provider, after the CID suggested that they would deploy computer analysts from the Colombo University to check whether the mobile phone data would be availed to them on a court order.

It is learnt that it was after this, that the CEO of Dialog, through the Attorney General’s Department, agreed to bring experts from Singapore and retrieve data for investigations.

Now the CID is receiving data to trace those who had given orders for the disappearance of Eknaligoda.

At the same time, many links to other abductions and killings that had taken place in the country during the Rajapaksa regime, were also coming out in the open.

It has been revealed that some of the T 56 weapons issued by the Army Military Intelligence Unit for the Giritale MIC Camp had been given to the Karuna faction and one of these guns had been used in the murder of TNA MP Nadaraja Raviraj in Colombo.

As investigations on the Eknaligoda disappearance have exposed more links to cases which were gathering dust in the CID and also ‘buried’ due to political pressure, have become a headache for those who were behind these acts, certain politicians were branding ASP Shani Abeysekara, the CID official handling investigations as a traitor.

ASP Abeysekara, has proved his capabilities in tracing culprits behind crimes and had led the major investigations relating to murders, assassinations, suicide bombers, abductions and ransom cases.

He had no political affiliations when conducting investigations with the only criteria being impartial investigations, tracking the culprits behind crimes. Not only had he conducted investigations against top officials, he had also earned the reputation for conducting inquiries over the allegations on Police officers too.

He was responsible for former DIG Vaas Gunawardena’s conviction for the murder of businessman Mohammed Shiyam, former PSD Director SSP Nihal Karunaratne’s jail sentence for obstructing and threatening another Police officer in February 2000 and conducting investigations into the suicide bomb attack on former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga in December 1999, the Udathalawinna incident in December 2001, the suicide attempt on President Maitripala Sirisena in April 2006 when he was a Minister, the suicide attempt on former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the suicide attack on former army Commander Sarath Fonseka in the Army Headquarters in April 2006, the murder of Customs Officer Sujith Prasanna Perera and LTTE attack on the Katunayake International Airport in July 2001.