Assault victim identifies one

[TamilNet, Friday, 10 March 2000, 12:03 GMT]
The victim in a sexual assault incident, a male Muslim student, identified one of the police constables accused of attacking him at the identification parade held at Trincomalee courts before acting Mutur Magistrate on Friday.

He failed to identify the other.

However the acting Magistrate ordered both suspects be remanded till 15 March.

The victim, a student of Mutur Central College, states that he was sexually assaulted on 11 February, allegedly by two police personnel.

According to the victim, two police personnel had dragged him to nearby jungle, and committed the offence. The suspects were attached to a police post inside the school, sources said.

The Liberation Tigers attacked the police post on 22 February, following which, parents and students protested, demanding the police post be removed from the school premises.

The police post has now been moved about 200 metres from the school.

Meanwhile the Senior Superintendent of Police Mr Pathmasiri Pathirana has called a discussion involving all school principals in Trincomalee following the detention of a Tamil student, Shanmugalingam Arjun.

Shanmugalingam, a student of Sri Koneswara Hindu College, was arrested on suspicion of carrying out a suicide bomb attack in the Trincomalee town on March 2.

The Senior Superintendent of Police called the conference at his office this afternoon after the Trincomalee Students Union school organized a protest in support of their colleague yesterday. The TSU is demanding the immediate release of Shanmugalingam. However, the TSU has moderated their call and has given seven days time for the police to complete their investigation into this incident.

Mr Pathirana briefed the principals on the circumstances which led to the arrest of the student.

He said that an army officer who escaped the suicide attack had gone to Colombo on leave. The Police were waiting for his arrival to record his statement.

The SSP informed the principals that he would take steps to complete the investigation once army officer's statement was recorded. He appealed to all principals to maintain discipline among students as the investigation took its course.