Political prisoner alleges abuse by prision guard to make false confession

[TamilNet, Thursday, 15 December 2011, 17:27 GMT]
Navaneethan, a guard in Batticaloa Prison, who allegedly receives instructions from SL Deputy Minister Vinayamoorthy Muralitharan, has been threatening a political detainee at the prison to to give a confession saying that he shot and killed Satchi master inside the prison on 15 July 2004. The victimised political detainee, Gunaseelan, made a complaint Wednesday when he was present in front of the Batticaloa Magistrate. The Magistrate directed the officer in charge of the Batticaloa prison to arrest the prison guard, legal sources in Batticaloa said.

The magistrate direction followed the complaint in open court by the detainee Gunaseelan on Wednesday that he had been threatened and attacked by prison guard Navaneethan to make a confession accepting that he had shot dead Sachchi master while he was being detained along with him.

The magistrate was forced to act because it was an open knowlege that the assassin was a different man.

Kanapathipillai Mahendran alias Satchi Master, a key associate of Vinyagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna, was shot and killed inside the Batticaloa prison on 15 July 2004.

The gunman, M. Puvitharan, who killed Satchi Master and another Karuna associate, surrendered to the SL Police in front of ICRC and Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) officials on the same day.

Puvitharan was later transferred to a prison in Moneragala in the Uva province. The accused had demanded that he be left in Batticaloa prison as a condition when he surrendered.

Legal sources said the latest revelation was descriptive of how confessions are being obtained from political prisoners.

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15.07.04   Key Karuna associate shot dead in Batticaloa jail