TMVP behind Varsha’s murder
Police investigations into the killing of little Jude Mary Varsha in Trincomalee recently determined conclusively that TMVP cadres were involved in the abduction and murder. But TMVP leader Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan, on March 21st vehemently denied any involvement of TMVP members in the abduction and killing of the tyke. He said that “Jana” who abducted the girl is not a TMVP member but merely supported the TMVP during the Eastern provincial council election.
But Police unravelled the entire abduction episode and disproved the Eastern Province Chief Minister’s statement. The situation in the east is that many civilians do not report cases of extortion by TMVP cadres out of fear or reprisals. The security forces are also powerless to intervene as the TMVP now possesses significant political clout in government.
Jude Mary Varsha, a grade 1 student of St. Mary’s College was murdered having being abducted for a ransom of Rs.30 million on March 11th. The abduction had been carried out by a group of TMVP members, police insist. When the abductors came to know that their identities had been discovered, they raped and murdered the girl. They put the body in a sack and dumped it in a canal in Trincomalee.
A team from Trincomalee police including SP Vass Gunawardena OIC police division and ASP Lionel Balagalla unravelled the details of the suspects who committed the crime, along with evidence which directly implicated TMVP cadres to the deed.
The four suspects
Four TMVP members were arrested in connection with the abduction of Varsha, and the Rs.30 million ransom demand and her rape and murder. Head of one of the TMVP’s offices in Trincomalee, Janarthan is also among the suspects in custody.
Mervin Renousan, who holds a degree in mass communication from an Indian university, Jani Xavier Reginald, who is the son of a WPC serving in the Trincomalee area, and a TMVP cadre named Shivananda Nishandan were the other suspects.
The graduate and the son of the WPC had become involved with the TMVP very recently. The other two had joined the TMVP when Karuna and Pillayan split from the LTTE. These two suspects have been identified as hardcore TMVP cadres who are with the Pillayan faction.
Police arrested the TMVP cadres on March 14th. Mervin Renousan was shot dead by police on March15th when he attempted to escape by slitting the throat of a police constable while being taken to the Trincomalee hospital for a medical examination.
Though this TMVP cadre represented the Pillayan faction of the TMVP, police investigations have revealed that he was also among those who went to Temple Trees and obtained SLFP membership on March 9th; the day Vinayagamoorthi Muralidaran alias Karuna assumed duties as the Minister of National Integration and Reconciliation. They have also obtained a picture showing him in the crowd at Temple Trees that day. On March 19th Janarthan, the TMVP area leader committed suicide by biting a cyanide capsule when he was taken to inspect a hidden stock of bombs.
Police held the remaining two suspects under detention orders and conducted a lengthy investigation. During investigations, police were able to obtain details related to many cases of large scale extortion and abduction which had been committed through the TMVP’s area office headed by Janarthan. Something else which came to light during the investigation was that this TMVP group had been responsible for the mysterious abduction and murder of a number of businessmen in Trincomalee.
Investigations also revealed that Shivanandan Nishandan was in fact an LTTE suicide cadre who had infiltrated the TMVP on the orders of Pottu Amman. He had been known in the LTTE as Podiyan.
Other targets
Police reveal that he had been targeting the following individuals; Eastern Province Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan, Eastern Province Governor Rear Admiral Mohan Wijewickrama, Trincomalee District Secretary Major General T.T.R. De Silva or Trincomalee DIG Ananda Hettiarachchi.
On information provided by Nishandan, police were also able to find two hand grenades hidden in an abandoned house along Convent Road, Trincomalee.
They found a suicide jacket hidden inside a plastic barrel in the Velankulam jungle. Police say that they took Jani Xavier Reginald and Nishandan with them to recover the suicide jacket.
The police claim that their team had come under fire by a group of men hiding in the thick jungle, after recovering the suicide jacket. Police say they returned fire and the two remaining suspects in Varsha’s murder were killed in the ensuing gun battle. Two police officers also suffered injuries.
Police say that they are aware how quickly incidents of theft, abduction and extortion in Trincomalee came to a halt after the death of the suspects in Varsha’s murder.
