Last week, the British Police’s War Crimes Unit announced that an unnamed 48 – year – old Sri Lankan suspect had been arrested in connection with the murder of BBC journalist Nimalarajan Mylvaganam in Jaffna 22 years ago.
Although a number of Sri Lankan and Diaspora media outlets have reported that Sebastian Pillai Ramesh, popularly known as ‘Napoleon’, was the prime suspect in the murder of Nimalarajan, but British police have not confirmed this.The suspect was arrested under Section 51 of the International Criminal Court Act 2001 in the United Kingdom.
Nimalarajan, who worked as a Jaffna correspondent for the BBC Sinhala Service, was killed while listening to the BBC radio service at his home in the middle of three military checkpoints during the curfew. His family members were also injured in the attack.
A case filed against the suspects in Sri Lanka was dismissed in May 2021 but it is reported that two of them are abroad. It is not clear whether the Sri Lankan authorities ever issued an international warrant for their arrest.