Two of seven LTTE sympathisers leave for Chennai

By Our Staff Reporter

VISAKHAPATNAM, AUG. 21. Two of the seven Sri Lankan Tamils and sympathisers of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who had been languishing in a police station here after completing their sentence in the MV Yahat case left for Chennai in the early hours of Tuesday.

V. Jayachandra and S. Sivarajan are on their way to a foreign country following a High Court directive to the State Government to allow them to leave to a foreign destination of their choice if they were having valid travel documents.

With the departure of the two, five of the nine Sri Lankan Tamils arrested by the police in the Yahat case in January 1993 have been left behind in the city. T. Mohan and Balakrishna left for the Middle East in the recent past.

"Though these Sri Lankan Tamils were not accused in any case and were staying in a special camp in the II Town Police Station here, on the direction of the court an escort accompanied them to Chennai to ensure that they boarded the flight to a foreign country for which they have made arrangements," Mr. A.K. Khan, Commissioner of Police, told The Hindu.

The nine, all of them crew members of Yahat, were arrested after the blasting of the vessel which was reportedly carrying arms and ammunition purportedly for the LTTE, off the Chennai coast in January 1993 when intercepted by the vessels of the Indian Navy and Coast Guard. They were tried in the designated court for TADA cases here and were found not guilty. But the CBI went in appeal to the Supreme Court and was successful in obtaining a three-year jail term on some charges.

When the time came for their release, as they had already completed their sentence under detention, cases under the Foreigners Act were filed against them, which were also dismissed. Since then, they are held under the Preventive Detention Act before being shifted to the special camp at II Town police station.

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