8 Tamil youths arrested in Dehiwela

[TamilNet, Sunday, 01 June 2008, 12:18 GMT]
Eight Tamil youths, seven from upcountry and one from Jaffna, were arrested in Dehiwala last Wednesday and are being detained in Dehiwala Police station. Police officers are conducting inquiries to ascertain their identities and the background. Those who can prove their identity would be released and the rest would be remanded with the permission of the court, police said.

Seven upcountry youths, Sivalingam Pushparajah, Sokkan Subendran, Subramaniam Mahendran, Sivalingam Sasitharan, Rengan Ketheeswaran, Sunthararajan Mohanraj and Ramasamy Sokkanraji, all are natives of Masekliya.

They were all employed by a construction firm.

The eighth person is Mervin Shankar Devanandan (21), a resident of Navatkuli in Jaffna, and had been studying computer science in Colombo.

Relatives of these youths have made representations to Colombo district parliamentarian and deputy minister P.Radhakrishnan regarding their arrests.