The Jaffna Magistrate’s Court (MC) has granted permission to former Defense Secretary and former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to give evidence online in the ongoing case concerning the disappearance of activists Lalith Kumar Weeraraj and Kugan Muruganandan. Weeraraj and Muruganandan of the Movement for the People’s Struggle had disappeared in the Avarangal area on 9 December 2011, a day before a protest organised by them was to be held by relatives of those who disappeared during the war to mark the International Human Rights Day in Jaffna.

Subsequently, the relatives of Weeraraj and Muruganandan had filed a Habeas Corpus petition before the Court of Appeal (CA) in Colombo in 2012. During the hearing of the petition, the CA directed the Jaffna MC to record evidence from witnesses and submit a report regarding the alleged abduction. Accordingly, proceedings commenced before the Jaffna MC on 19 September 2012.