Court releases four Tamil youths

[TamilNet, Thursday, 24 May 2007, 10:18 GMT]
The Colombo Magistrate released two Tamil youths, Velupillai Rajkumar, 21, and Gnanaseelan Gajendran, 21, natives of Jaffna when the Colombo police produced them in court Wednesday, legal sources in Colombo said. In another case, two Tamil youths arrested in a cordon and search conducted in Grandpass area in Colombo and kept in remand for about two months under the Emergency Regulations (ER) were released by Colombo Additional Magistrate Mr.Ajit Seneviratne Wednesday when the prosecuting police submitted that there were no evidence against them, legal sources said.

Men arrested in Grandpass, Kanthasamy Ravichchandran, 36, of Kaarainagar in Jaffna district and Tharmalingam Thirukumaran, 26, of Vavuniya were detained in the Grandpass Police station since their arrest on March 30 and interrogated by the Terrorist Intelligence Bureau of the Police.

In the other case, Police told court that Rajkumar and Gajendran were taken into custody from a lodge located along Dam Street in Colombo city and that the youths were suspected to be members of the LTTE.

The Police said the youths failed to provide satisfactory explanation for their stay in the location.

Defence Counsel told court that both youths had come to Colombo and stayed in the lodge to make preparation to leave Sri Lanka seeking foreign employment.

More harm would be done to the future of these youths if they were remanded further, defence submitted.

Mr.Manjula Thilakaretna, Magistrate made order for the release of the youths in bail on Rs.50,000.