Paper investigated over murder report

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 February 1999, 15:25 GMT]
The associate editor of Uthayan, the only news paper published in Jaffna, was grilled this afternoon over a report about the human head found in a drain yesterday by officers from the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) of the Sri Lankan Police.

Sources in Jaffna said that the CID had questioned Nadesapillai Vithiyaatharan as to how his paper had come to know on Monday night that the head was in the town.

The Police and the army found the head last morning in a drain in the heart of Jaffna town.

Three CID officials had interrogated Vithiyaatharan from 12.45 p.m. to 2.30 p.m. at the Uthayan office in Jaffna town.

The journalist told the Police officers that he had reliably learnt from a source that a head was lying in the heart of the town. He had however declined to reveal his sources. The CID recorded his statement.

Meanwhile, Tamil press sources in Colombo said that a paramilitary group operating in Vavuniya and Jaffna has indicated that the head belongs to a youth killed in retaliation for the murder of its district leader last month.

The head was found near the spot where the paramilitary cadre was shot by unidentified gunmen last month.

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