By Keerthi Kelegama
(Using the top “Back” button come back to this page again after reading the short letter given to me by Party Leader Pala Nedumaran of Tamil Nadu by clicking Nedumaranji)
The Sinhalese should understand that there is a
strong case for the Tamils to fight for a separate state (Eelam). They are
continually harassed is one reason. Now it is the time for the Sinhalese to
support for the government and LTTE rebels to come for a settlement, owning up
the mistakes they committed or otherwise. My writing up this story is to make
up the psychology of the Sinhalese to accept a solution and to fight for a
solution and force the rulers to come for a solution. The following is the
chapter titled "Inhuman harassment of Tamils" extracted from
"Good-bye Chandrika" written and published by me, which finally made me flee from my country.
This was a basically judgment given by a senior most judge of the Supreme Court
who used to act for the Chief Justice of Sri Lanka in his absence and he did so
as the president of the Athulathmudali Commission which delved into the case
and the book carries thus:
The government and forces fabricate evidence and get false confessions
on pain of continued detention. Thereafter, they obtained the judgments they
wanted. Extract from the judgment on
the Athulathmudali assassination by a Special Presidential Commission
proves to what dirty tricks the government and the forces were upto. I cannot understand, in the light of thee
facts, how the Tamil community could support a majority Sinhala government.
Definitely, they are innocent people. Rulers use the police and their henchmen
to kill an innocent person in order to use him as evidence and also to harass ordinary Tamils and get
wrong sentence, providing wrong evidence to obtain a sentence of imprisonment,
suspended or otherwise, against anybody. This is, in law, an offence,
punishable with imprisonment. Government not
taking steps to punish those wrong doers in police for misleading court and obtaining wrong judgment, was
because the victims were Tamils?
The Special Presidential Commission on the assassination of Lalith William Athulathmudali carries the judgment, a separate line in bold letters which said "False fabrication of a case against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam for the murder of Athulathmudali" who was most famous National Security Minister one time. These details begin from the page 186 of the report.
Report says:"The death of Lalith Athulathmudali and of Ragunathan are closely linked to each other. The police investigation of 1993 into these deaths suggested an assassination of Athulathmudali was done by an LTTE agent who committed suicide when confronted with the imminent arrest.
"Reliable evidence available to the Commission shows that it was a fabricated version of what happened, deliberately done by the local police to screen the offenders. The evidence now available, proves beyond reasonable doubt that Ragunathan was murdered by those who killed Athulathmudali, by administration of poison that is "potassium cyanide and a firearm wound caused to his back by a bullet fired from a cartridge with a reduced load of gunpowder to pretend that he received it when leaving the playground having shot Athulathmudali. Being a Tamil and member of the LTTE, selected and sent to Colombo for this purpose, he found himself trapped and in fear of imminent capture resorted to a method of escape followed by the LTTE as a last resort and bit on a cyanide capsule he carried in his person for which LTTE Commanders are known.
The commission has already adverted to the circumstance that bodyguard Tilak Shantha could not have fired by any of the shots heard on the NIB tape, vital contradiction of the eye witnesses who testified at the inquest regarding the injuries inflicted on the assassin. These two items of evidence proves beyond reasonable doubt that Athulathmudali assassin did not receive any injury at the playground that night. The evidence that the wound on the bodyguard’s thigh is by a cartridge of a reduced load of gunpowder with its entrance placement on the thigh causing a flesh wound is totally consistent with it being self inflicted.. The police deliberately removed all gun powder from the cartridge and fired it with a pistol surrendered by the bodyguard Tilak Shantha so that the government analyst would find a bullet stuck in its barrel whilst other witnesses have said that there was in fact nothing stuck in the barrel when it was handed over to the police.
All these evidence taken together shows that the bullet wound on Ragunathan’s body was not received at the playground as asserted by the police.
In this one can observe the system adopted in this case of reducing or removing gunpowder in a cartridge case and firing that doctored cartridge into people. There is also the added fact that that Ragunathan was in Soththi Upli’s custody on the day of his death. Soththi Upali has not testified and denied although he cross examined Subash.
Upon these circumstances, the only inference compatible with sanity is that the wound on Ragunathan’s back was caused at a very short range while he was in Soththi Upali’s custody at some time. That was a reason to abduct Ragunathan in the first place to prepare his body to support the theory of LTTE involvement in the assassination of Athulathmudali as aforesaid. There is further evidence that Soththi Upali has liquid potassium cyanide in the Gothami road premises which he used for various criminal activities, well protected by the Borella police. Soththi Upali was seen experimenting with liquid potassium cyanide injecting them to dogs etc. Scotland yard scientists have confirmed that cyanide can be introduced into the human body in any of the three forms, solid, crystal powder, liquid or gaseous.
Once a man is starved for three to four days and in the context of the ethnic conflict and subjected to fear and forms of torture, he could become entirely subdued if he is alone and just an innocent victim. The commission has evidence that Ragunathan had applied for necessary documentation to a foreign employment agency in Colombo to go abroad. That was the reason for him to be in Colombo. Such person could be administered poison secretly, perhaps in some drinking water, perhaps by injecting with a small plastic syringe that hardly leaves any mark on the body. After his death a glass capsule could be crushed and inserted into his mouth causing injuries to his lips wetted with liquid cyanide for smell. The body thus arranged could be presented to furtherance of the false case. Nothing was forced on him while alive for fear of leaving marks or signs. He was not assaulted, so said Subash.
Evidence was available of Ragunathan being held captive and he was visited by CDB police officers, Devasurendra and Abdeen and Janaka Piyankara Jayamanne alias Sudumhattaya who killed Athulathmudali and of Ragunathan’s body suddenly appearing from nowhere at the co-operative stores wall with fabricated gun shot wound on the back. Meanwhile teams of police officers searched the area previous night. It was on IP Rangala’s evidence, they did so. If the body was there at the time, it must have been found.
It was seen by the manageress of the Co-operative stores later in the morning and reported. She said that the area was the haunt of drug pushers and addicts at night. Strangely the Kirilopone police set out from the police just about the time she gives the information at the police station gate. There is also the medalling by the police with production at the Mugalan Road scene before the arrival of the magistrate. A national identity card said to have been near the body, was removed and not shown to the magistrate. That card was taken by DIG Seneviratne and given to ASP Gunaratne of the CDB. When subsequently produced, it is seen that the original picture has been removed and Rgunathan’s picture was introduced. The clumsiness of the switch could not be examined by the magistrate as it was previously withheld from him. It is unlikely that anyone for that matter who wishes to use false identification card would act in this way by removing only the original picture and pasting another. Surely such a clumsy method would be observed by anyone examining it. An entire false card would be used to impersonate. The police touch has been screened from scrutiny. Afterwards, they can remove the picture and show that it was merely pasted.
In pursuance of this case of LTTE involvement, Tamil persons involved in other offences and Tamils who came in contact with Ragunathan in Colombo, have been arrested and detained, false confessions recorded., some released. Even whilst commission having public sittings probed the death of Ragunathan as well as of Athulathmudali. Being circumstances connected to the latter’s death, the CDB had a parallel inquiry without informing the commission and arrested a Tamil youth and had him on a detention suggesting he was a LTTEer concerned in the Athulathmudali murder. This fact came to the attention of the commission only by chance when a Commission Officer went to CDB headquarters for something else and was casually given a copy of a statement taken from a one Kauseelan. Thereafter some nonsense came to be published in the front page of a newspaper, an underhand act said to be instigated by a police officer affected by this investigation., now not with the CDB, the report said.
Then the report started with the sub heading:"The arrest and detention of Tamils" which says: "The commission will now deal with the cases of four Tamil persons who have been arrested in the course of CDB inquiries into Athulathmudali assassination. Two have been released and two still in detention.
Besides these two persons, several more was
arrested, charged and dealt with and released. The commission does not intend
to go into all these cases. They are in the proceedings and are numbered as "A" documents.
The case of Deva Radhi and
Ravichandran
According to the false case the police presenting to the public regarding the death of Athulathmudali and Ragunatan as has been proved beyond all reasonable doubt, we find that all that time the police had no reliable or acceptable evidence to show that victime 2 Ragunathan was the assassin of victim 1 Lalith Athulathmudali or of his involvement in the LTTE. All the CDB had was a dead body with an improbably faked national identity card. a smell of cyanide from the body identified by a mortuary laborer, an improbable gun shot injury of the back of the body of the victim 2 and a pistol and ammunition and hand grenade which could have been placed there by some one else and some keys. The police could not on such flimsy evidence maintain their declaration either that victim 2 was a LTTE operative and thus seal the LTTE involvement in the assassination of Athulathmudali, SSP Ronnie Gunasinghe had said so to Shalila Munasinghe before noon 24-4-93 that the police suspect victim 2 to be the assassin of victim 1. The police had done no inquiries at that time.
The police had therefore to bolster their case with other material. To do that they looked for other Tamils whom they can say were associates of Ragunathan. They knew where he lived, as he had been picked up by and kept in captivity. They found that the room Ragunathan lived in Sumithrarama Road Kotahena, had been rented to him through the intervention of Deva Radhi.
Deva Radhi who went to Kotahen Church had met an old lady named Sinnammah who wanted her to find lodging for her. Sinnammah was Ragunathan’s aunt. That is how Ragunathan came to occupy a room in Athula’s house – vide proceedings.
On 26-4-93, Devas Radhi and her child and one Kauseelan who lived in their house had gone to Vavunia as Kauseelan was going home to Mulaithivu to see his new born infant. Deva Radhi returned to Colombo and then she and her husband Ravichandran and their sick child went to their house (Ravichandrasn’s) in Valachanai. That is her evidence. It may be that they were also frightened as Ragunathan was being identified by the police as an assassin and LTTE operative. But that does not make them culpable in any way.
Deva Radhi and Ravichandran were arrested in Valachanai on 4-5-93 and brought to Colombo. Their address had been ascertained from a relative Perimaprajah who is a Reserve Police Constable.
In Colombo, they were both put on detention orders and detained at Borella police station. Ravichandran who was also taken to Kirilopone police station. They were both kept in detention for 6 months. Deva Radhi complained of assault and humiliation. There is a highly significant fact as the Borella Police station was under the control of Hemantha Adhikarai whose affinity to Don Ranjith Upali Alias Soththi Upali, a principal actor in the murder of Ragunathan, has been deposed by Subah Abeysekera., Baskaran, PS Anura, IP Perera and Dayanganai. Soththi Uplai had Raugunathan in secret captivity in Gothami Road, Borella, a secure place in IP Adhikari’s area of control until he was removed secretly before Athulasthmudali was killed.
This then is highly significant evidence showing the connection with the Ragunathan’s murder and the police and the Tamils taken into custody. Both Deva Rani and Ravichandran were later charged before the high court for harbouring offenders. They pleaded guilty as they were told would remain custody otherwise for a long time. In this manner a guilty plea was procured from them. They were given suspended sentences, payable fines and released. Vide H.C. Colombo 674694. They said that they pleaded guilty to secure the freedom from false arrest and detention. They obtain their release the same day. This pattern is seen in other cases too Obviously the police was satisfied they had no connection with the Athulahtmudali murder or the LTTE.
The entire transaction of the arrest, detention and release of these two persons show a scheme. There is not a tittle of evidence that either of them knew Ragunathan to be a LTTE agent, specially selected and sent to assassinate Athulathmudali. They say Ragunathan came to Colombo in order to go abroad. He had shown his ID card to Athula when taking the room on rent, according to Ravichandran. If it was this fake card with clumsily pasted pictures, it would have been noticed. He is said to have handed in his papers to a foreign employment agency but the Commission could not trace the documents. It is a fact that many people living in Jafffna came to Colombo to obtain visa to go abroad in this period. Deva Radhi was reduced to tears at some accusations made during the cross questioning and protested against the molestation in that manner. It was observed that the main attack was against Deva Radhi as she was from Jaffna and her sister had been killed by the IPKF. It was suggested therefore that joined the Tigers which suggestion she vehemently denied. She had been working in a ice plant and a prawn factory before came to Colombo in order to go abroad but met Ravichandran who was employed in Colombo as a pump attendant at a lodging house and married him. Ravichandran was from Valaichchenai. He was not attacked in cross examination. He denied that he knew Kauseelan was in the LTTE. Ravichandran said that he spent 09 days in a cell at Kirilopone police station. There were drug addicts in his cell. One of them told him that two or three days before the body was found on the Mugalan road, that man was in the cell with him. Radhi and Ravichandran were just taken into custody, detained for a long period and charged with minor offence and released. There was no evidence to show they knew Raghunathan had connection whatsoever with the LTTE. The evidence is the other way. This whole transaction was consistent with fraud and an effort to bolster a false case. It is a continuing phenomenon says Athulathmudali Commission report. This is a judgment given by the Athulathmudali Commission headed by Tissa Dias Bandaranayaka who was the senior most judge of the Supreme Court, used to act for the Chief Justice in his absence.
This website carries one of my book titled: Buddhism back to God " and its last chapter: "My experience with God" carries how the money being swindled in large scale at Tamil Nadu prisons as well as other irregularities there. Please visit: embezzlements
