Police arrests Vijayakala for controversial remarks on LTTE

By Chathuri Dissanayake

Former State Minister and UNP MP Vijayakala Maheswaran was arrested and was later granted bail for her alleged public remarks which spoke of a revival of the LTTE. 

Police sources said that she was arrested upon her arrival at the Organised Crime Division of the Police last morning to record a statement.

Maheswaran was the State Minister of Child Affairs when she spoke at a function in North last June, saying that she wished for the revival of the LTTE to help curb the violence against women and children. She was speaking in relation to the rape and murder of a young girl.

She had said that when the LTTE was running its parallel administration, the crime rate in the North had been zero. Since the armed conflict ended in 2009 with the LTTE’s military defeat, the rate of crime had seen an escalation. More women and children have become victims of the rising rate of crime, Maheswaran claimed.

Her remarks were severely criticised by nationalist politicians, especially the Joint Opposition, including   former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. 

Speaker Karu Jayasuriya later referred her comments to the Attorney General parallel to an independent investigation by the Police. In July, statements were recorded by Police to probe if her comments had endangered national security due to its alleged nature as it may cause public harm by raising communal passions.

Maheswaran was later presented to the Colombo Magistrate and granted bail for Rs. 500,000.