Murder of Nadarajah Raviraj: Court issues arrest warrant for SL Navy Officer

By Ayshwarya Yapa-July 27, 2017

The Court of Appeal has issued a warrant for the arrest of Prasad Hettiarachchi, an officer of the Sri Lanka Navy.

Prasad Hettiarachchi has been named as a respondent of the petition submitted by Nadarajah Raviraj’s wife, through which she requested that the murder case of her husband be taken up for hearing again.

When the relevant petition was taken up for consideration today (27), the counsel representing the petitioner’s side stated before the Court that summons had already been issued to five of the defendants who have been named as respondents.

The counsel then proceeded to request that the Court issue an arrest warrant owing to the fact that Prasad Hettiarachchi, one of the named respondents, had failed to appear in Court.

After considering the petitioner’s case, the Appeal Court panel of judges issued a warrant, and ordered that Hettiarachchi be arrested and produced before the Court.

The late Parliamentarian Nadarajah Raviraj who represented the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) from the Jaffna District, died in hospital after being shot by unidentified gunmen in Colombo on November 10, 2006.

He was shot as he left his house in Colombo for work. One of his guards, Sgt. Lakshman Lokuwella, was also killed in the attack.

Nadarajah Raviraj, a former mayor of Jaffna and a lawyer by profession, had his own law firm: “Raviraj and Associates”. 

He was a native of Chavakachcheri in the Thenmaratchy sector of Jaffna.  Raviraj was elected as a Councilor to the Jaffna Municipal Council in 1997.  

He was elected to the Parliament in the 2001 General Election for the first time representing Jaffna district and was re-elected in 2004.

Raviraj’s murder took place within one year of the killing of veteran Eastern Province Parliamentarian, Joseph Pararajasingham.