Inquest into students’ murders begins at Trinco court

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 10 January 2006, 18:59 GMT]
The inquest into the killings of five Tamil students last week in Trincomalee by suspected members of Sri Lanka’s armed forces, began Tuesday before the Trincomalee Magistrate, Mr.V.Ramakamalan. The inquest was initially scheduled to be held on Monday, but was moved to Tuesday as the parents of the slain students had to attend to the eighth day rites of their slain children on Monday according to Hindu customs, legal sources said.

Mr.M.Rajeehar, Mr.T.Sivananda, Mr. Y.Hemachchandran, Mr.S.Sajeendran and Mr.L.Rohanth had been shot dead by members of Sri Lanka armed forces on January 2 at about 7.55 p.m. while they were relaxing by the sea, the sources said.

Dr.K.Manoharan, father of Rajeehar, first gave evidence for about one and half hours followed by Ms. Subashini Chitravelu, sister of Ms Thangathurai Sukirtha, the mother of the slain student Sivanantha. Both sobbed in open court while giving evidence. At that stage the Magistrate put off the recording of the evidence of parents of other slain students for Thursday.

The Magistrate said that any one who preferred to give evidence in regard to the killings could come before courts on Thursday.

The Magistrate had already recorded the evidence of two injured students in the attack. They are still warded in the intensive care unit of the Trincomalee general hospital, legal sources said.

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