Hunt on for killers of Red Cross volunteers

Chamikara Weerasinghe

COLOMBO: Inspector General of Police, Victor Perera has appointed a special CID team to investigate the deaths of two Red Cross volunteers, whose bodies which had been recovered from the Kiriella area with gun shot wounds.

Investigations are under way on the direction of CID DIG Prathapasinghe and Senior DIG Illangakoon.

Meanwhile, Red Cross Society officials had identified the bodies.

OIC, Kiriella Police, Chief Inspector Yasawardena Weeratunga said a Red Cross team had identified the bodies at the Ratnapura mortuary last morning.

Sri Lanka Red Cross Chairman Jagath Abeysinghe said the two victims, Katikesu Chandra Mohan, 28, and Sinnarasa Shanmugalingam, 31, had been Red Cross Volunteers for the past five or six years. "We have called for full scale investigations into the incident from the IGP," he said.

Mohan and Shanmugalingam were reported to have been abducted on Friday at the Fort Railway Station. The incident had taken place around 6.30 pm, police said.

The victims had been taken away in a white van bearing No.251-6437 by the suspects, police said.

"We have information about the van, and how it had happened," police said. Mohan and Shanmugalingam were residents of Chenkalady and Nawathnady areas in the Batticaloa district.

They were returning home after attending a Red Cross workshop in Colombo when they were reportedly abducted by persons in a white van. They were in the company of four other Red Cross Volunteers who had reported the incident to the Fort police.