Chemmani arrest order faxed to CID

[TamilNet, Monday, 06 March 2000, 16:33 GMT]
Orders to arrest the Sri Lankan army personnel who were named as suspects in the murder of Tamil civilians in Jaffna were faxed to the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) of the Police in Colombo today from Mannar by the judge of the special courts hearing the case to prevent further delay in the legal proceedings.

The judge of the special courts hearing the Chemmani mass graves case, M.Ilancheliyan, is also the district judge for Mannar.

An officer of the CID handling the Chemmani investigation was quoted in the Tamil daily, Virakesari, yesterday as saying that his division had not received any documents from the Jaffna courts with the judge's order to arrest the suspects.

The arrest order was issued by judge Ilancheliyan in the Special Courts in Jaffna which assembled at the Nursery School building of Jaffna Central College on February 22.

However, documents pertaining to the arrest order sent by express post from Jaffna to the Mannar district court for the signature of M.Ilancheliyan had not reached him until this morning.

Therefore to avoid any further delay in the case, the judge instructed the Jaffna courts to fax the documents to him for signing at the Mannar courts today.

The arrest order was then signed by the judge and was faxed later in the day to the CID in Colombo.

Legal sources in Colombo said that the CID had to await the court documents signed by the Chemmani special courts judge as the arrest of the suspects has to be co-ordinated with the Sri Lankan Army's military Police.

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