CA stays Jaffna MC summons to ex-Defence Secy Gotabaya

By S.S. Selvanayagam

The Court of Appeal yesterday issued an Interim Order staying the summons issued by the Jaffna Magistrate Court, requiring former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa to attend before it on 27 September.

Former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa

This Interim Order was issued by Justice Deepali Wijesundera until 3 December.

Justice Achala Wengappuli recused himself from being a member of the Bench hearing this matter.

The Court directed to issue notices to Major General Mahinda Hathurusinghe, former Army Commander Lt. Gen. Jagath Jayasuriya, Atchuveli Police OIC, and former IGP N.K. Illangakoon.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa has been summoned to give evidence before the Jaffna Magistrate’s Court on 21 June in a Habeas Corpus inquiry into the disappearance of two human rights activists who went missing during his tenure as the Secretary to the Ministry of Defence.

Human rights and political activists Lalith Kumar Veeraraj and Murugananthan Kugan went missing a day before World Human Rights Day, on 9 December 2011. They were last seen in the Kaithady area in Jaffna.

Seven years ago, a writ of Habeas Corpus was filed in the Court of Appeal to demand their release if they were in the custody of the State.

According to their initial statements, Lalith Kumar and Murugananthan Kugan, travelling from Point Pedro on a motorbike, were stopped at Kaithady by a group, bundled into a white van and taken away. That was the last time the two activists were seen.

Before they went missing, Lalith Kumar, who resided in the Avissawella area, and Murugananthan Kugan from Jaffna, had been organising an event to mark World Human Rights Day in Jaffna.

Lalith Kumar was formerly a non-academic staff member at the University of Sri Jayawardenapura. He later joined the People’s Liberation Front (JVP) to pursue full-time politics.

After the end of the war in 2009, when suppression was high, he went to Jaffna, as he was fluent in the Tamil language. He joined the Jana Aragala Wiyapaaraya (Movement for People’s Struggle), a dissident faction of the JVP, in 2011, and then the Frontline Socialist Party. Lalith Kumar met Murugananthan Kugan in Jaffna during his Leftist political movements.

Romesh de Silva PC appeared for Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Senior State Counsel Wasantha Perera appeared for the Attorney General.