MHC will take up SL’s Tamil militant-turned-Minister Devananda’s petition, seeking that it set aside a lower court’s 23-year-old MURDER CASE.!!!

Madras HC to take up Douglas’ petition
August 15, 2010, 9:45 pm


By S Venkat Narayan
Our Special Correspondent



NEW DELHI, August 15: The Madras High Court will take up on Monday Sri Lanka’s Tamil militant-turned-Minister Douglas Devananda’s petition, seeking that it set aside a lower court’s 16-year-old order that had deemed him a proclaimed offender and treated him as an absconding accused in a murder case. Last Friday, Devananda, the Minister for Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development, approached the Madras High Court, urging it to stay pending criminal cases against him that make him a wanted person and an absconding accused in India.



The minister, aged 55, has three cases of murder, extortion and intimidation registered against him in Chennai. The cases date back to mid-1980s, when he was a Sri Lankan Tamil activist in exile.



In one case, the allegation was that Devananda and other accused, who were also Sri Lankan Tamils, had a quarrel with the local people at Choolaimedu, a Chennai locality, on Deepavali day, 1 November 1986.



One individual, identified as Thirunavukkarusu, was killed when he was fired at. Charges were framed on 30 January 1987 by XVII Metropolitan Magistrate.



Subsequently, the case was committed to IV Additional Sessions Court. The accused were arrested and enlarged on bail. They were absent before the trial court. Hence, they were treated as absconding accused, and declared proclaimed offenders, and an order to this effect was passed on 30 June 1994.



After Devananda was enlarged on bail, he said he was expatriated to Sri Lanka, but has no records. He said he genuinely believed that the case against him had been dropped. He had no knowledge of the case after the July 1987 Indo-Sri Lankan Agreement and after his expatriation to his own country.



In his petition to the Madras High Court on Friday, Devananda argued that the trial court had failed to see that the Aminjikarai police inspector’s report that he and other Sri Lankan Tamil accused were absconding and concealing themselves was baseless.



After his expatriation to Sri Lanka, Devananda submitted, there was no place of residence for him in India. Therefore, on the basis of the police inspector’s report, no proclamation order could be passed, declaring him to be an absconding accused.



The trial court’s order had asked the accused to appear before the court, or before the Aminjikarai police inspector, on or before 28 August 1994, and that the proclamation should be published in one Tamil newspaper and an English newspaper as per the Indian Criminal Procedure Code. But no such publication was made.



Devananda argued in his petition that he "genuinely believed the cases against him were also dropped and he had no knowledge after the 1987 agreement and after his expatriation to Sri Lanka."



The minister visits India quite often. However, his visit as a member of President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s delegation in June prompted a the filing of a petition in the Madras High Court demanding action against him under Indian laws over three cases pending against him.



Devananda said he is now a cabinet minister in Sri Lanka, and is willing to abide by any condition set by the Madras High Court. Therefore, the proclamation order should be set aside.



In the second case filed at the Kilpauk police station in Chennai in 1988, he has been charged with kidnapping a boy for ransom.



The third case is connected to a complaint filed by a person called Valavan in 1990 at the Kodambakkam police station, accusing Devananda of rioting.

ISLAND.LK