Magistrate orders Chemmani exhumation

[TamilNet, Thursday, 01 April 1999, 10:01 GMT]
The Jaffna additional magistrate N.Arulsaagaran ordered in court today that ex-Lance Corporal Somaratna Rajapaksha, the first accused in the Krishanthi Kumarasamy rape and murder case, to be produced in Jaffna on June 15 to identify the alleged grave site in Chemmani.

The exhumation will commence the next day when Rajapaksha identifies the alleged grave site according to the magistrate's order today.

The geologist who examined the soil sample that was taken from the Chemmani area on March 5 said in his report submitted to the court today that the earth in the general area in which the alleged mass grave is said to be located had been tampered with.

The Chemmani case was taken up in the Colombo magistrate's court today.

K.S.Ratnavel who appeared on behalf of the victims argued that the case should be heard in the original Judicial Zone and could not be transferred to another zone with out obtaining the commission's permission.

The Attorney General's department said that the case could be heard in Colombo as N.Arulsagaran functions as a Colombo Magistrate and the additional magistrate of Jaffna.

The judge overruled the protest from Mr. Ratnavel but said that in future hearings would be held in Jaffna .

Mr. Ratnavel told TamilNet this evening that he would not appear in future hearings as there had been no involvement of foreign experts.

He said that he appeared today to protest the transfer of the case to another judicial zone.

"This might become a general practice in future" he added.