Sivalingam Arooran, who was arrested on suspicion of the suicide bomb attack on former President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa at Pittala Junction in 2006 when he was the Defense Secretary, has been acquitted of all charges after 14 years. Colombo High Court Judge Navaratne Marasinghe gave this decision.
He was detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act in 2009 and detained in Nawa Magazine Jail for over 14 years.
The Attorney General had filed this case in 2013 under 13 charges of conspiracy to kill the Defense Secretary and six indictments had been presented against the accused. It was difficult to maintain the case when High Court Judge Navaratne Marasinghe rejected a request made by the Attorney General to accept a statement made by the accused in front of the former DIG Cecil de Silva as evidence in the case.
Announcing the verdict, the judge stated that the court ruled that the confession given by the accused to the Assistant Superintendent of Police under the Prevention of Terrorism Act was not voluntary.
Accordingly, the Additional Solicitor General, who appeared before the court on behalf of the Attorney General, informed the court that there was no other evidence against the accused. He also said that the Attorney General does not intend to continue the case against the accused.
The High Court judge, who considered the facts, said that he would give his judgments regardless of the status of the people and that the accused would be acquitted due to lack of evidence.
Arooran, who is 43 years old, holds an engineering degree from the University of Moratuwa in 2004. At the time of his arrest, he was studying post-graduation at Peradeniya University. Arrested in this way, he was imprisoned for almost 14 years under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
Aruroan developed his skills as a writer after his imprisonment and has written 07 works in Tamil and one work in English.
Meanwhile, Sivalingam Arooran won the two State Literary Awards for the novels written by him in 2016 and 2022