Dean of the Colombo Law Faculty V.T. Tamilmaran was surrounded by residents in Punkudutivu accusing him of helping one of the ten suspects involved in the brutal murder of Sivaloganathan Vithya. He was rescued from angry residents by Army and Navy personnel on Tuesday.
Tamilmaran who hails from Punkudutivu had gone there to assess the situation, as one of the suspects accused in the murder is said to be known to him.
The suspect who had returned from Switzerland recently, had managed to escape Police custody when he was admitted to the Jaffna Hospital. The protestors accused that it was with the help of Tamilmaran that the suspect had escaped.
Tamilmaran denied the accusations saying that he had nothing to do with the escape of the suspect, and that he was in Punkudutivu with the Tamil National Alliance Parliamentarians, when he was surrounded by the residents of the area.
As senior Police officers made an attempt to rescue Tamilmaran from his vehicle, residents surrounded the vehicle and prevented it from leaving the scene.
Tamilmaran was in the vehicle for nearly six hours, from 1.00 p.m. as the protestors prevented the police from letting his vehicle leave the area. Eventually Police had to seek the assistance of the Navy and Army personnel based in Punkudutivu to disperse the angry mob from the scene.
With the intervention of Navy and Army the Dean of the Colombo Law faculty was put into a naval vehicle at 6 p.m. and frisked off the scene to Jaffna, 10 km away from Punkudutivu via Pannai causeway, with Navy escort.
The suspect M. Kumar who is believed to be a close friend of Tamilmaran was arrested in Colombo on Tuesday.
The Police had promised the protestors that they will interrogate Tamilmaran and find out whether he had any connection in assisting the prime suspect to escape from Jaffna.
(PA) / CT