Who killed the Hindu priest?

'Well! Well!! Well!!! Presenting the evidence to the Criminal Investigation Department? In the first instance those demanding J Jenny to submit her evidence must furnish their first hand evidence (stated in their news that ‘it was confirmed to us by them (eye witnesses) that the murder had been carried out by group headed by Pirabakaran’ ) to the CID.'

by R Jayadevan

(October 05, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) On the 21 September 2008 the Hindu priest of the famous Koneswaram temple was killed by some unknown persons. Both the government and the LTTE are maintaining silence on the murder. The death, as usual, was reported in the media but for some reason failed to attract a debate.

After several days later, on 29th September 2008, I received a write up written in Tamil by J Jenny about the murder from five different sources. I recall seeing this write up in one of the Tamil website. I was contacted by some persons to do a write up about the priest’s murder. Those contacted me bluntly put the blame on the government security forces for the murder. The persons approached me for the write up do not have any knowledge of J Jenny. As I had very little knowledge about the murder, I decided to translate the story of J Jenny. Though I knew J Jenny, I did not contact her to obtain further clarifications or her approval to translate the story.

The translation was sent to my media contacts including those associated with the Vizhippu.com. Sri Lanka Guardian was the first to publish the translation. Soon after its publication, news appeared in the Vizhippy.com website that I had published a false story about the murder in the Sri Lanka Guardian. The news also accused me of falsely stating the source of the news as thenee.com.

As I had based the translation on the email I received and did not down load the news from the thesamnet.com website , I made a genuine error by sourcing it to thenee.com. When a serous accusation was published about me in the Vizhippu.com, I immediately contacted the Sri Lanka Guardian to correct the mistake. I also contacted both Thenee.com and Thesam.com and apologised for the oversight. Both the editors were magnanimous and said they realised it was a genuine mistake.

Then news appeared in the Sri Lanka Guardian titled ‘Dilemma over murdered Hindu priest in Trinco’ in response to the translation of J Jenny’s write up. This story categorically refuted J Jenny’s charge that the Sri Lankan forces carried out the murder and blamed a group headed LTTE chief Pirabakaran.

The sad death of a Hindu priest which failed to attract a public debate suddenly became a debating story. The interesting fact about the current debate is that J Jenny’s write up published in Tamil did not invite any debate within the Tamil media. Only when it was translated by me and published, it attracted downright criticism and a counter story was produced.

For me, murders of innocent priests are abhorring acts, leaving aside the murders of innocent people. I am highly critical of the LTTE whenever they killed a priest. According to sources, LTTE had killed about 23 Hindu priests so far. When the latest Sivasiri Sivakugarajah priest was killed, I was disgusted and only J Jenny’s write up helped me to unravel something about the killing.

What is intriguing now is, both J Jenny (according to the news published in the Sri Lanka Guardian) and the Vizhippu.com are saying that they have evidence to prove who is responsible for the killing. J Jenny is saying it is the government forces. The Vizhippu.com authors are saying it is the LTTE. The Vizippu.com is demanding that J Jenny should ‘provide her evidence and documents to the Criminal Investigation department (CID) in Colombo’.

Well! Well!! Well!!! Presenting the evidence to the Criminal Investigation Department? In the first instance those demanding J Jenny to submit her evidence must furnish their first hand evidence (stated in their news that ‘it was confirmed to us by them (eye witnesses) that the murder had been carried out by group headed by Pirabakaran’ ) to the CID.

Further problems arise with their claim to produce the evidence to the CID in Colombo. Will these demanders state in public whether any Tamils could have faith in the police investigation machinery in Sri Lanka? So many appalling crimes have been committed against the Tamils and how many perpetrators have brought to justice? The list will be endless.

I can only state J Jenny has given a compelling case against the security forces and her write up only states ‘some men had shot at the priest’.- Sri Lanka Guardian