Attempt to murder case against Prabhakaran closed three years after his death

CHENNAI (TNN): A case registered against slain LTTE Chief Velupillai Prabhakaran decades ago, and pending without any progress since then, was closed by a Chennai Court on Friday.

On 19 May 1982 Prabhakaran and his associate Raghavan alias Sivakumar fired at rival leaders  Uma Maheswaran alias Mukundan and Jotheeswaran belonging to People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam in Pondy Bazaar here. While Jotheeswaran was injured in the incident, Uma Maheswaran escaped unhurt. A case of attempt to murder under Section 307 of IPC was registered against Prabhakaran and Sivakumar. They were arrested and remanded in judicial custody.

This shootout case was declared ‘abated’ by the VII additional sessions judge (in charge) here on Friday (23), after the CB-CID filed a report seeking closure of the case on the grounds that Prabhakaran was dead and his body had been recovered from the Nandikadal area of Sri Lanka in 2009. The CB-CID, which had been ‘investigating’ the case, relied on Interpol and the Sri Lankan Police reports to say the LTTE supremo’s body was recovered after an armed conflict in the Nandikadal area in 2009.

N. Kaliamurthi, the VI additional sessions judge who is holding additional charge of VII additional court, said, “The non-bailable warrant (for Prabhakaran) is pending. Charges against the first accused (Prabhakaran) have abated.”

As for others, the CB-CID said Sivakumar had been out of India for more than 15 years and his whereabouts were not known. Jotheeswaran had repatriated to Hong Kong and settled there, it said, adding that one more person wanted in connection with the case, Niranjan alias Sivaneswaran, was killed in an encounter with the Sri Lankan Army.

In October 2010, a designated court here closed the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case against Prabhakaran, who was the prime accused, and his intelligence wing Chief Pottu Amman alias Shanmuganathan Sivasankaran on the basis of a report filed by the CBI.

“The case against the absconding accused Prabhakaran and Pottu Amman alias Shanmuganathan Sivasankaran is hereby dropped and the charges against them ordered abated,” ruled the designated judge K. Dakshinamurthy then.