Madras court suggests TN govt. free Lankan doctor

The Madras high court has asked the Tamil Nadu government to consider releasing a Sri Lankan Tamil doctor, now lodged in a special camp for refugees at Poonamallee, so that he could return to his country with his family and reclaim the property they had left behind during the civil war, Times of India reported.

Justice V Ramasubramanian, passing orders on the petition filed by T Maheswaran’s wife Prasanthi, asked the authorities to “reconsider the matter as to whether the continued retention of her husband in the special camp is necessary at all, especially when she wants to go back in response to the call made by the Sri Lankan government.”

According to Prasanthi, her family came to India in the middle of the civil war. Her husband, a doctor, used to visit the special camp at Poonamallee to treat a disabled detainee, Suresh Kumar. In December 2012, he too was detained on the ground that he was an LTTE operative and he and five others had ‘trained themselves’ to make improvised explosive devices.

She said the Lankan government had issued an ultimatum to the people who left the country that in order to redeem their property they should return within a stipulated time, failing which all the property would be lost.

Additional advocate general P H Arvindh Pandian and additional government pleader P Sanjay Gandhi told the bench that Maheswaran was in-charge of medical wing of the LTTE and had conspired to wage a war against Sri Lanka.

Justice Ramasubramanian, however, rejected the apprehension, saying the chargesheet in the case has just been filed in a sessions court and that the case itself was ‘interesting’. The case revolved around electronic materials such as micro chips, testing device, GPRS and laptop, the judge said, adding, “I do not know how the presence of these items would indicate a mindset, culpable of committing the offence alleged.” He asked the government to take a decision on the matter within two weeks.