A local court today sent a letter of intimation to the Additional City Public Prosecutor stating that video conferencing arrangements have been made to conduct the trial of former Sri Lankan Minister Douglas Devananda in a nearly three decade-old murder case on March 5.
IVth Additional Sessions Judge M Shanti also informed Additional City Public Prosecutor Prabhavathi to produce some of the prosecution witnesses on that day without fail.
This was stated by Prabhavathi to the media.
The trial in the case, in which Devananda is an accused, commenced on January 18 with the examination of Gurumoorthy, a witness in the case, by the Additional Public Prosecutor.
Devananda, then a member of Eelam People's Revolutionary Front, is the third accused in the 1987 shootout at Choolaimedu here in which one person was killed. All nine accused in the case were arrested but absconded after being released on bail.
A non-bailable warrant had been issued against Devananda who later became a minister in Mahinda Rajapakse government. He did not return to India but moved courts for cancellation of the NBW.
Allowing his plea, Justice C T Selvam of the Madras High Court had on September 10, 2014, permitted Devananda to stand trial through video conferencing and ordered him to appear through the facility at the office of the High Commissioner of India in Colombo as and when required.
However, as the other accused remained absconding, the trial in the case could not be proceeded with.
But decks were cleared after the prosecution in October last moved a petition seeking to split the case and conduct the trial against Douglas. The other accused, all Sri Lankan Tamils, would face trial as and when they are nabbed and produced before the court.
