Murder accomplice says paramilitary cadre forced him

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 01 September 2004, 17:37 GMT]
One of the suspects who were arrested on 24 August in connection with the murder of a girl in Sithamparapuram, 14 kilometres southeast of Vavuniya, told Vavuniya judge Mr. Manickavasagar Ilancheliyan Wednesday that the main suspect in the case, Mr. Mendis Thilakrajah, had forced him to help remove the body of the victim by threatening to harm his wife and children. “Thilakrajah threatened me saying that he was a member of the Varathar Ani and hence could hurt my family”, Mr. Malaiyandi Antonyraj, told the magistrate who recorded his confession.

Mr. Antonyraj is accused of assisting the main suspect dump the girl’s body in an abandoned toilet pit in Sithamparapuram. Varathar Ani is a paramilitary group working with the Sri Lanka army in the northeast.

Skeletal remains of the murdered victims

Mr. Thilakrajah said in his confession that he had known the murdered girl for two years; that on 3 December 2003 he had had an argument with her; that he had assaulted her when she had spoken abusively of his parents; that he had then pushed her against the wall and strangled her neck; that she then lost consciousness and later died; that he removed the gold jewellery on her and gave it to a person called Seelan who sold the girl’s ornaments for 8500 rupees (85 USD); that Seelan took 2000 rupees and gave the balance to him.

The third accused told the judge in his confession that Mr. Thilakrajah had given him the girl’s jewellery to sell and that he had sold them through an auto rickshaw driver in Gunasinhapura in downtown Colombo.

The judge remanded the three suspects until 13 September.

Meanwhile, Police Wednesday submitted to Vavuniya courts the report by Prof. Chandrasena Niriella, the Forensic specialist who examined the skeletal remains of the murdered girl, which were found in a toilet pit in Sithamparapuram last month on information provided by the three suspects. The girl was murdered by strangulation, according to the report.