A 50-year-old Jaffna man arrested by the Terrorism Investigation Division on arrival at Bandaranaike International Airport from India has been released by the Mallakam Magistrate’s Court.
The man is Kanthasamy Krishnakumar, of Amman Kovilady, Masiapitty, Jaffna. TID officers arrested him at the airport on 26 October, after he arrived from Tamil Nadu, the Daily Mirror reported at 10.11 a.m. Colombo time on Friday.
He was brought to Jaffna on Thursday and produced before the Mallakam Magistrate’s Court, which ordered his release. The court directed that the case be called again on 12 November.
Eleven years in India
Krishnakumar’s detention follows a long period in Indian custody. He was arrested in the Rameswaram area of Tamil Nadu in 2015 and served a five-year prison sentence. After completing it he was transferred to the Trichy Special Camp, where he remained in detention until his recent release, at which point he returned to Sri Lanka.
That sequence is what makes the outcome notable. He arrived in Sri Lanka having already served a sentence in India and spent years in a special camp afterwards, was detained at the airport by the division that investigates terrorism offences, and was released by a magistrate within days without being remanded.
The Trichy Special Camp in Tiruchirappalli holds foreign nationals, including Sri Lankan Tamils, after the completion of criminal sentences, pending deportation or further orders. Detention there is administrative rather than a criminal sentence.
A different case from the October deportation
This is not the case this desk reported on 27 October, which concerned a man deported from India into TID detention. The two are distinct: different person, and a different fact pattern — Krishnakumar is a Jaffna resident who returned of his own accord and was detained on arrival, and he has now been released rather than held.
Not reported
The filing does not say what Krishnakumar was arrested for in Tamil Nadu in 2015, what offence his five-year sentence was for, or why he was held in the Trichy Special Camp after completing it. It does not say how long he was in the camp, or when he was released from it.
It does not state the basis on which the TID arrested him at the airport, whether any offence was alleged against him in Sri Lanka, or under what law he was detained — whether the Prevention of Terrorism Act, the Immigrants and Emigrants Act or another provision. It does not say why the magistrate ordered his release, whether the TID opposed it, or whether any reporting or travel conditions were imposed.
It does not name the magistrate, say whether Krishnakumar was legally represented, or explain what will be taken up when the case is called on 12 November. It does not say whether he was held in custody between his arrest on 26 October and his production in court on Thursday, or where.
Single source. A search of other verified newsrooms found no independent report of the case at the time of writing: Hiru News’s rail carried none and NewsFirst’s carried none. Ada Derana could not be checked — adaderana.lk has returned an HTTP 403 block to this desk for some 49 consecutive days.
