TRO men & two others with huge sums of money arrested

Four men, said to be connected to the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), which is operating as a front Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) on behalf of the LTTE were arrested with a large sum of money when they tried to enter un-cleared areas across the KADDAIPARICHAN Entry/Exit point, TRINCOMALEE on 16 August 2005 around 6.00 p.m.

Troops recovered a sum of Rs. 25 lakhs (US $ 25,000) and two TRO Identity Cards from the possession of W. NAGULESHWARAM and S. WIJEKUMAR of KILINOCHCHI and THOPPUR who were on a private bus heading for SAMPOOR from MUTTUR.

Those suspects have further failed to account for the purpose of taking such a colossal sum of money into the un-cleared areas. At the time of their arrest, two more men, R. RAVICHANDRAN and S. RAJESHKHAN who were near the same bus were also arrested by the troops on suspicion as their Identity Cards indicated that they were also from the TRO.

However, those suspects were handed over to MUTTUR Police, the same evening. Meanwhile, just after an hour of that incident in MUTTUR, another two Tamil men carrying Rs. 175,000/= (US $ 1750) were arrested on suspicion by troops at the same entry/exit point around 7.00 p.m. The suspects, T. KENESWARAM and A. THILAKANANDAN, claimed to be members from an organization called “Village People’s Development Organization” were handed over to MUTTUR Police along with the recoveries. The MUTTUR Police station are conducting investigations.