Sri Lanka: Tamil businessman abducted ahead of FR case

The Sunday Times
.............................................................................................................................................................................................

An armed group grabbed a businessman from outside his residence at Wellawatte around 3.30 p.m. yesterday, two days before a fundamental rights case filed by him was to be taken up. Police said Ramasamay Prabhakaran, 42, was bundled into a white van by seven men armed with assault rifles and hand guns before it sped towards Dehiwala.

The men abducted the businessman in front of his wife and daughter shortly after the family had returned from Athurugiriya, police said adding that an islandwide alert had been sent out about the vehicle.

The Sunday Times learns that the businessman, had earlier been detained for about two years, on allegations that he had links with the LTTE but was released on September 16 last year due to lack of evidence and all charges were dropped.

Subsequently, the businessman had filed a Fundamental Rights case in the Supreme Court where senior police officers attached to the Colombo Crime Division (CCD) were cited as respondents.

The FR case was to be taken up for hearing tomorrow. Leave to proceed was granted earlier.

“The armed men were hiding in our compound, surrounded by a brick wall. They grabbed my husband by the neck and dragged him towards the vehicle. He was screaming for help as they sped away,” his wife Shiromi told the Sunday Times.

She later made a complaint to the Wellawatte police. “The police told me that the registration number of the white van was a fake,” she said.

© The Sunday Times