ACCOMPLICE OF WALKING BOMB JEYARANI CONFESSES TO THE POLICE AND A MAGISTRATE THAT THE SUICIDE BOMBING TO KILL DEVANANDA WAS PLANNED BY THE LTTE
Thiagaraja Jeyarani ( Age - 26) who Blew herself up at Kollupitiya
By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles
July 09, 12.30 PM: A woman accomplice of the suicide bomber, Jeyarani who accompanied the walking bomb to Minister Douglas Devananda’s office has confessed to the Police and a magistrate who saw her alone that the Colombo suicide blast , July 7, was planned by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) .
The accomplice, named Sathya Leela Selvakumar (29) was earlier employed by Minister Douglas Devananda and terminated , police sources said. She was arrested immediately after the Jeyarani blew herself up killing four offices of the Kollupitiya Police and herself.
The Tamil group who has the only suicide bomber group in Sri Lanka has now accused that a third party against the “peace process” would have planned the bombing targeted at their ace political rival, Minister Douglas Devananda, the leader of the Eelam People’s Democratic Party. The LTTE had made nine attempts before on the life of Devananda unsuccessfully. It has been also customary for the group to deny any link after every terrorist attack they performed in the past. All suicide attacks by the LTTE are done under the personal supervision of the rebel group’s Supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran and Spy Chief Pottuamman. Before every suicide attack the walking bomb also get the rare opportunity of having their last sumptuous meal with .their leader, Prabhakaran as an honor.
Sathya Leela Selvakumar, the alleged accomplice told the Police anti-terrorist detectives that she was employed for a salary of seven thousand Rupees until last April by Douglas Devananda and then was terminated. After that she proceeded to Jaffna and joined the LTTE under a woman leader named Guna.
It was that leader who ordered her to meet Jeyarani alias Akka, who came strapped with explosives, near Minister Douglas Devananda’s office July 7 and accompany her to the second floor of the building where Devananda runs his office in the high security area close to the US and British embassies and the official residence of the Prime Minister, the Temple Trees.
The accomplice reportedly told the police that she accompanied the suicide bomber to the second floor and went away. The Police believes that the killer was only few yards away from her target, Devananda when security personnel tried to put her under physical check, which she refused to undergo.. The Police sources said this time unlike earlier occasions less explosives had been used only to kill the planned target, the reason for lesser number of victims.
Colombo Fort magistrate and additional District Judge Sarath C. Karunaratne heard Sathya Leela’s confession and remanded her until July 12.
