2ND LEAD (Update and correction)

Verugal Pradesiya Sabha member shot dead

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 October 2006, 11:14 GMT]
Gopalasundaram Pathmakalaparan, member of the Verugal Pradesiya Sabha in the Eachilampathu division in Trincomalee district, was shot dead Monday afternoon around 2:00 p.m. by unidentified armed men, Serunuwara Police said.

He was shot dead when he was cycling near a bakery about fifty meters away from Sri Lanka's police check point at Ali Oluwa junction towards Killiveddy. He received gunshot on his head and chest,

He had been a priest in Lingapuram.

The Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchchi (ITAK) returned uncontested at the election held to the seven-member Verugal Pradesiya Sabha in March this year. Mr. Pathmakalaparan was one of the them.

Muthur Magistrate M.Ganesharajah inspected the body of the victim now lying in the mortuary of the Serunuwara government hospital.

The Magistrate ordered the Serunuwara Police to submit the post-mortem report and investigation report to the Muttur court. He further instructed the hospital authorities to release the body to the relatives of the victim after post-mortem examination, legal sources said.

Meanwhile, a forty two year old Tamil civilian Nalliah Sivakumar was shot dead by unidentified persons Saturday afternoon around 1.30 p.m. at Mallikaitheivu in Muthur division. Muttur Police is conducting inquiry into this incident.