The Magistrate Court in Jaffna has reconfirmed the death of a Tamil youth in police custody as “a murder”. Magistrate A.A. Anandharaja directed the charge sheet to be forwarded to the High Court for sentencing.
The case was heard on Tuesday (2) by the Magistrate when the postmortem report of Nagarasa Alex was presented to the court. Local court reporters present said the report found the death was due to torture and the injuries due to that.
Based on the postmortem report the Magistrate verified the death as a murder again and ordered the copy and the charge sheet be sent to the High Court.
Magistrate Anandarajah on the 24th of November 2023 ruled the death of 26-year-old Nagarasa Alex of Sithankeni in Vaddukoddai as “not a natural death but a murder” while he was detained under police custody.
During the identification parade in the presence of the Magistrate on the 8th of December 2023, the first witness identified four police persons including the former Deputy Inspector of the Criminal Investigation Department at the Vaddukoddai police station.
Journalists present at the court further say the Magistrate ordered the Officer in charge of the investigation to immediately arrest the other identified police official who is yet to be arrested and produce him in the court.
The Magistrate further ordered the Registrar of the court to forward his orders of 2nd January to the Inspector General of Police since allegations have been made against the police about the murder of Nagarasa Alex.
He further ordered the remanding of the four police officials over the murder of the Tamil youth till the 16th of January. Nagarasa Alex was arrested based on a court order and was in police custody where he was murdered.
