Former SL minister Devananda all set to stand trial through

Former Sri Lankan minister Douglas Devananda is all set to face trial before a court here through video conferencing in the island nation in connection with a 28-year-old murder case.
City Public Prosecutor M L Jagan filed a petition before Additional Sessions judge M Santhi today, seeking to split the case and conduct the trial against Douglas and for the nine other accused, all Sri Lankan Tamils, for trial as and when they are nabbed and produced before the court.
Devananda is the third accused in the 1987 shootout at Choolaimedu here in which one person was killed. All of them were arrested but they absconded after being released on bail.

A non-bailable warrant had been issued against Douglas, who later became a minister in Mahinda Rajapakse government. Though he was part of a delegation that had visited India in 2006 at the end of the civil war in the island nation, he was not arrested due to his diplomatic immunity.
He did not return to India after that but moved courts for cancellation of NBW.
On September 10, 2014, Justice C T Selvam had permitted him to stand trial through video conferencing.

The judge had said he should appear through video conferencing at the office of the High Commissioner of India in Colombo, as and when required.

Referring to his status and attempts on his life, the judge had said that at every instance when the petitioner was required to appear before the trial court in person, the state should afford him appropriate protection.
"This order is passed in the peculiar circumstances of the case, given the diplomatic status and the effect execution of a non-bailable warrant issued against a minister of the neighbouring state may entail. This order shall not be seen as a precedent," the judge had said.