Guruparan refutes media allegations

by Thava Sajitharan

As many of the news reports described last week, it was a ‘20-hour ordeal’ for Sooriyan FM news editor and news manager Nadarajah Guruparan who was abducted by unidentified gunmen in Mt.Lavinia while he was on his way to his office on Tuesday (August 29) morning and set free the following day. Police investigations are under way and the perpetrators of the abduction are yet to be found.

The 39-year old Guruparan, whose native place is Innuvil, Jaffna, was a former member of People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE). Later on, he quit the outfit and worked for ‘Sarinigar’ - an alternative fortnightly newspaper published by the Movement For Inter-Racial Justice and Equality (MIRJE).

At present he is the news manager of the Tamil Radio station ‘Sooriyan FM’ which is owned and run by the Asia Broadcasting Corporation. He lives in Mt.Lavania with his wife, daughter (11) and son (8).

He was in charge of the popular radio program ‘Viluthukal’, aired on Sooriyan FM, where he interviewed Human Right activists and politicians. In the last program he conducted, he had expressed critical views on violations of human rights and the Tamil people being abducted in Colombo and other parts of the country.

Kidnappers released Guruparan on Wednesday morning at Kohuwela. Guruparan told the Sunday Observer that he was relieved to be back at home. According to him, his captors spoke in Sinhala. The kidnappers did not harm him. Guruparan said his kidnappers made no demands for his release. When asked as to what decisions he had taken in the aftermath of the abduction, he said he was considering quitting his job since his family was worried about his safety.

Meanwhile, Guruparan refuted media reports, which quoted ‘reliable sources’ to say that he was an updater of the “pro-LTTE Tamilnet” and another LTTE website and he was also the news editor of the LTTE’ Sinhala language newspaper ‘Dedunne’.
He said he was deeply perturbed about this sort of irresponsible reporting since it could endanger his life.

He challenged anybody to prove that he had links with these media institutions.

Meanwhile, several media organisations got together and staged a demonstration in protest against the abduction on the day the kidnapping occurred. The Sri Lanka Working Journalists’ Association, Free Media Movement, Tamil Media Forum and Muslim Media Forum were among those who held the protest in Colombo Fort. President Mahinda Rajapaksa, prior to his departure to London on Tuesday, had directed IGP Chandra Fernando to conduct a special probe into the abduction.