MAIN SUSPECT IN RAVIRAJ’S MURDER: TMVP’s Charan to be extradited

The Colombo Chief Magistrate has issued an arrest warrant on Sivakanthan Vivekanandan alias Charan, who had migrated to Switzerland, and plans are underway to have him urgently extradited on the basis of his serious involvement in the killing of TNA Parliamentarian, Nadarajah Raviraj. Raviraj was shot and killed close to his Colombo residence in November 2006.

The government’s report submitted to the 133rd session of the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Geneva recently, for the first time, shed details about the killing of Raviraj as well as Joseph Pararajasingham, both involving the LTTE breakaway group, the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP).The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has established the complicity of Charan in the killing of the TNA Parliamentarian. Charan, now a prime suspect in the murder probe, has been a member of TMVP, an armed paramilitary group of ex-LTTE fighters. The CID investigations were assisted in the first instance by a team of Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) from UK’s New Scotland Yard. After initial investigations, the British team had returned to the UK, carrying with them, certain exhibits recovered from the scene of the murder. The CID has now been informed that examinations performed on the products/exhibits taken to the UK...have resulted in the production of DNA profiles and fingerprints that could help solve the murder mystery. Sources said, it was now necessary to solicit further assistance from the British team to carry out further investigations, particularly for DNA comparisons of the suspects in custody. On the advice of the British investigators, the process has been initiated to forward a Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) request to the UK authorities to enlist further assistance in the ongoing investigations. Following Raviraj’s murder on November 10, 2006, the CID investigators arrested seven suspects. Four suspects had been granted bail, while the other three suspects, Lt. Commander Hettiarachchi Mudiyanselage Prasad Chandana Kumara Hettiarachchi the of Sri Lankan Navy, Petty Officer Deliwala Gedara Gamini Senevirathne of Sri Lanka Navy and Police Constable 43554/ Wijayawickrama Manamperrige Sampath Preethi Viraj (under interdiction) are currently held in remand prison.