Razeek group claims second son

[TamilNet, Saturday, 20 November 1999, 03:51 GMT]
At the resumed inquest into the death of Manikam Perinpamoorthy,21, at Kaluwankerni on November 10, the mother of the deceased told the Additional District Judge that some members of the 'Razeek' group threatened her that she too would meet her death like her son.

The Razeek group is a paramilitary unit operating as auxiliary forces in the Sri Lanka Army (SLA).

Manikkam Ponnnammah (52) gave evidence when the hearing was resumed Friday in the Batticaloa courts.

The mother, Manikkam Ponnnammah, said that on the day of incident her grandson came and told her that her son (Manikam Perinpamoorthy ) had been killed.

She and her daughter-in-law (wife of the deceased) rushed to the scene of incident where they saw blood stains on the ground.

On their way to the Morakodanchchenai Sri Lanka Army (SLA) camp at Morrakodanchenai, two Razeek group cadres, known as ‘Visu’ and Sountharam threatened them.

However witness and her daughter-in-law reached the Morakodanchchenai SLA camp by a different path.

At the camp, the witness asked some soldiers seen there why they killed her son.

Soldiers replied that they did not kill her son, and told her to ask of the Razeek group members in their camp.

When she asked some of the Razeek group members seen in the camp they threatened her that they would kill her too like her son.

The distraught witness then told them to kill her too.

The witness said that they did not show her the body of her son, and added that 'Visu' of the Razeek group killed her other son two months earlier.

At this stage the Additional District Judge K.Thadchchanamoorthy issued notices on the Grama Sevakas (GS) of Thevapuram and Kaluwankerni Ms S.Maheswaran and S.Ariyarasa respectively, to appear in court on November 29 to give evidence.

The inquiry was put off for November 29.

Attorney-at-Law Kanaga-Namanathan on behalf of the Batticaloa Human Rights Forum observed in the interests of the deceased.