"There was a surveillance team meant for the Commander under Sampath Munasinghe. They were situated in Chaithya Road, a place locally called ‘Pittu Bambuwa’. This location was used for residential purposes of the team. The boys and other persons who have been abducted for ransom purposes had been kept there, the CID officials involved in the investigation revealed to the Sunday Observer."
If a person is missing or his whereabouts cannot be located for over seven years the legal presumption of ‘declared death in absentia’ will apply.
Rajiva Naganathan, Pradeep Vishwanadan, Thilakeshwaran Ramalingam, Mohomad Sajid and Mohomad Dilan went missing on the 17th of September 2008 and were subsequently found to have been abducted. It’s been over seven years, but still their families are hopeful and haven’t given up the fight to find them. It seems this story builds up and unravels around Rajeev Naganathan, who was a youngster in his early twenties and had just finished high school. But it’s important to first re-visit the incident where this all came into light. The following story is based on the findings of the Police as presented in court.
Former Sri Lanka Navy Commander Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda filed a complaint with then D.I.G Anura Senanayake on June 28th 2009 that one of his security personnel Sampath Munasinghe, has in his possession several identity cards belonging to others. When his room was searched Admiral Karannagoda had been able to find 5 identity cards, passports as well as ammunition used for several kinds of weapons. These recovered items were then handed over to the CCD to investigate. Then the CCD filed a case bearing number B732/2009 in the Magistrate’s Court and obtained a court order. Alternatively investigations were held within the Department for Registration of Persons, to find out as to whom the identity cards belonged to.
These investigations led to the lost boys.
According to Rajeev Naganathan’s mother, Sarojini Perera, her son Rajeev Naganathan, her cousin’s son Thilakeshwaran Ramalingam and Pradeep Vishwanadan who was her nephew all had been at Sarojini’s house on this 17th of September. Then Dilan came home with someone else.
“The next day my son was to leave to England to embark on his MBBS to start on with his next step in life,” She started unfolding the incidents of that dreadful night.
Rajeev wanted to spend the final few hours with his parents before he left the next day. Although he had changed into a sarong and was settled in the house Dilan received a call and all plans changed. They left the house with the excuse of going for a haircut.
“When I told him he could get a haircut in after he lands in the UK, his reply was that it will be too expensive there,” Sarojini recalled. Then Rajeev with his friends and cousins left home that night in a black Tata Indica car. That was the last day Sarojini saw her son.
Commodore Bandara of the Navy who has currently retired after being promoted to the position of rear admiral and J J Ranasinghe who is the current chancellor at the Kotelawala Defence Academy in their statements have admitted that another 5 boys have been abducted and held by the Navy and said that they were abducted by Sampath Munasinghe. CID officials revealed.
During investigations evidence led to one Ali Anwar who resides in Fernando Lane closer to the Dehiwala Police. Ali Anwar was Sampath Munasinghe’s informant. It was Ali Anwar’s duty to identify and locate youngsters from wealthy backgrounds who are Tamils and give the information so that abductions can be carried out by Sampath.
‘Sri Lanka Navika Nauka Parakrama’ is the Naval name given to the Sri Lanka Navy headquarters. Navy Commander’s security team consisted of about 100 or more members. There was a surveillance team meant for the Commander under Sampath Munasinghe. They were situated in Chaithya Road, a place locally called ‘Pittu Bambuwa’. This location was used for residential purposes of the team. The boys and other persons who have been abducted for ransom purposes had been kept there, the CID officials involved in the investigation revealed to the Sunday Observer.
When parents were questioned by the CID Rajeev Naganathan’s mother admitted that his son was detained at a place called ‘Pittu Bambuwa’ in Chaithya Road. He was allegedly abducted by Lt. Commander Hettiarachchi on a tipoff given by Ali. The son has been able to use the telephone of one of the persons who was their guard to call the mother. During these calls he revealed the whole sequence to the mother.
The mother wrote down everything in her diary whenever the son spoke and the whole conversation. “Then I managed to verify the details that were told by this boy to his mother through my investigations. They had asked 10 million rupees from Rajeev Naganathan’s father. The ransom call was made by Ali Anwar. During this time Ali Anwar goes missing and during one of his calls to the mother Rajeev reveals that Ali too had been brought to ‘Pittu Bambuwa’,” said the CID official conducting the investigations.
“I had gone to India on a pilgrimage when we received the first call. My husband has answered the phone and the voice at the other end had said that it’s our son. Although the voice was familiar with what had happened he had not been ready to believe that it was him, therefore my husband had asked for some personal questions and also the name of the fish in our fish tank. He answered correctly. And we knew it was our son,” said Sarojini.
CID sources say that they naval officers who were kept to guard the boys would have felt for them as soon after they had realized that they were not LTTE suspects. The mother used to reload credit for the phones and to take advantage of this the guards have given out their phones to the boys to call.
A former Navy spokesperson who at that time the operations had a team under him headed by Leutinent Commander Hettiarachchi. When interrogating another navy officer during investigations it was revealed that under orders given by Sampath Munasinghe, Hettiarachchi’s team abducted five boys from the Dehiwala area.
Nevil Priyantha Attanayake is a intelligence officer of the Navy who was a major at that time. He brought Sampath Munasinghe to the CID on 2009. 06.10. Then he was handed over to the CID and arrested under the emergency regulations.
“When questioning him I managed to extract information that he has been involved in incidents of wrongly accusing innocent Tamils to be LTTE or LTTE linked and demanding ransoms. I had a reasonable doubt that he was involved in these activities so I arrested him and obtained a detention order against him to conduct investigations,” says the CID official who conducted the investigation.
Altogether there have been 11 persons abducted in this collective matter. They were found to be taken to an area called ‘gun site’ situated within the naval academy located in Trincomalee. There were underground tunnels and cells in this compound. This has been used during the Portuegese era to mount cannons.
The parents of these children still await the return of their sons.
“I know my son is still alive” says Sarojini Perera and she says she believes her son will be returned to her soon. The boys’ calls came in till June 2009 until the parents decided to get help from a politician to get the children released. Unfortunately the only result of this was that officials in charge of these children got to know that they were in touch with their families. And then in June 2009 the calls stopped.
Although legal action is still going on what the parents want is for their children to be returned to them. There are bad eggs amongst any cross section of a society, work place, profession or even in the Forces. Someone decided to exploit the system. No room should be allowed for such unfortunate incidents to take place.
On the 19th of this month when the habeas corpus case was taken up in courts Aluth Gedara Upul Bandara giving evidence admitted that he was involved in this abduction. In leading evidence to court he further states that after they were abducted the youth was handed over to lieutenant Commander Ranasinghe and he conducted interrogations to see if they had links with the LTTE.