Jaffna Court directs SLA to safeguard crime evidence

[TamilNet, Saturday, 30 June 2007, 21:33 GMT]
Jaffna District magistrate T. Vignarajah directed the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Jaffna Commander Maj. Gen. G. A. Chandrasiri to take care in safeguarding the evidences found at the site of killings in the Jaffna peninsula, when Jaffna police notified the magistrate that evidence material related to the killings of two fuel station employees gunned down by unidentified armed men at Temple road Friday evening, were missing, legal sources in Jaffna said.

Gunmen shot dead the manager and a worker of a private fuel station located at Jaffna Main street-Madaththadi junction as they were returning from work with the day's collection in a bag and the keys of the fuel station.

Money and keys were found missing when the police recovered the bodies, sources said.

The killers cannot have escaped from the site of the killing without the acquiescence of SLA troopers stationed between two key SLA camps, Kailaayappi'l'laiyaar Koayil 200 m to the north and Narikku'ndu Ku'lam camp 200 m to the south of the crime site, civil society source said.

The SLA troopers at Kailaayapi'l'laiyaar koayil camp had fired into the air for nearly ten minutes following the shooting at Temple road, local residents said.

Evidences found at the site of other killings in the Jaffna peninsula also have gone missing. Jaffna magistrate considered this as a serious impediment in conducting trials, and had brought the matter to the notice of the SLA commander, legal sources in Jaffna said.