Selvarajah Yogachandran

Selvarajah Yogachandran,^[1] also known as Kuttimani was one of the leaders ^[2] of the former Tamil militant organization TELO from Sri Lanka. He started his career as a smuggler. In Sri Lanka, the word 'smuggler' is used by the government's police to tarnish the image of Tamil militants who are from the northern region. He was arrested and sentenced to death, and was killed in the 1983 Welikada prison massacre ^[3] along with the other TELO leader Nadarajah Thangathurai.

Before his death, Kuttimani was officially nominated to the Vaddukoddai constituency in October 15, 1982, when the then sitting member of TULF party, T.Thirunavukkarau died on August 1, 1982. However the legal sources, then under the control of President J. R. Jayewardene, ruled that Kuttimani's nomination as a member of parliament was invalid. The then Prisons Commissioner Priya Delgoda announced on October 16, 1982 that Kuttimani would not be released from prison to take his oaths at the parliament. Kuttimani's appointment was gazetted while he was under a sentence of death. In a statement issued to explain the reasons for nominating Kuttimani to the vacant parliamentary seat, the TULF officials included five. Among these are two prominent reasons: (1) Kuttimani's nomination is a token protest against the state terrorism perpetrated from time to time through the agencies of the police and military personnel especially on the young Tamils of the country. (2) It is a protest against the death penalty imposed on Kuttimani and Jegan. Subsequently on February 4, 1983, Kuttimani's death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment under the general amnesty proclaimed by President Jayewardene. After this, Kuttimani resigned his Vaddukoddai seat in the parliament, to which he was nominated.

See also

• Nadarajah Thangathurai
• Velupillai Prabhakaran
• Sivakumaran
• Jeganathan
• S. J. V. Chelvanayakam
• Black July

References