Two detained in Ida Hamilitta case

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 20 July 1999, 21:10 GMT]
The Mannar Court today ordered the detention of U.Dayananda Upul Gurusinghe and N.K.H.D.Rjah Somaratne, two soldiers from Pallimunai army detachment, in connection with the rape and murder of Ida Hamilitta, a Tamil woman who was killed on July 11.

Two witnesses identified the soldiers from among the 11 soldiers at Pallimunai army detachment mixed with 69 other soldiers in two identification parades that took place in the courts today, sources in Mannar said.

The Magistrate ordered the Police to detain the two suspects at Anuradhapura after ruling out an application for bail from the SLA lawyer, Major Jayasinghe, who had come from Anuradhapura to represent the two suspects. The case has been postponed till August 3.

M.Ilancheliayn, the Mannar District Magistrate also ordered the exhumation of the body and gave instructions for the body to be sent to Colombo for another post-mortem by the JMO there, said sources.

The exhumation is set to take place tomorrow.

The order was given by the Mannar courts on the request of Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), Arif, of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Police Head Quarters in Colombo and the Inspector of Police, Riyad, also from the CID.

A special CID team came to Mannar a few days ago from Colombo to conduct further investigations.

Meanwhile the body of an SLA soldier killed during operation Rana Gossa 4 last month was exhumed this afternoon in the presence of Mannar District Magistrate, M.Ilancheliyan.

The judge ordered the exhumation following an application made by Col.Jayawardene, the Officer in charge of the Paappamoddai army detachment, sources said.

The body was initially brought from Anuradhapura as it was identified to be that of an LTTE member.

Col.Jayawardene told the courts that the 37th body was handed over to the Mannar Police on a misidentification and that it has now been identified as that of Nalin Perera of the 8 Gemunu Watch at Paappamoddai.

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