General Ratwatte's sons surrender to CID

[TamilNet, Saturday, 23 February 2002, 15:48 GMT]
The two sons of the former Deputy Defence Minister, General Ratwatte who had been absconding arrest since December last year in connection with the murder of ten Muslim youths at Udathalawinne in Kandy Saturday surrendered to the Criminal Investigation Department.

"Both suspects Lohan Ratwatte and Chanukah Ratwatte are now being interrogated by the CID. They could be detained only for twenty four hours," said Mr.C.A.Ratnayake, Deputy Inspector General of Police (CID). Lohan and Chanukah are the main suspects in the Udathalawinne murder.

According to the investigation carried out so far into the murder, an army corporal had stated that the two suspects Lohan and Chanukah were seen at the scene of incident on December 5 last year.

The Kandy Chief Magistrate Mr.C.V.Rajapakse issued arrest warrant on Lohan and Chanukah when they failed to appear in court on February 11. Both accused failed to appeared in Teledeniya Magistrate' Court too arrest warrants were issued on these suspects.

The Teledeniya Magistrate Ms Inoka Ranasinghe postponed the identification parade in the Udathalawinne murder case for four times when the two main suspects failed to appear in court.

General Anuruddha Ratwatte was arrested last Wednesday and has been remanded until March 4 on several charges including the conspiracy in the murder, failed to produce the main suspects Lohan and Chanukah and giving his approval to commit the murder. General Ratwatte has been transferred to Colombo National Hospital from Welikada prison on medical grounds.

Prison authorities said all the thirty three suspects including General Ratwatte and his two sons Lohan and Chanukah would be produced in Teledeniya Magistrate's Court on March 4.

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