Rajapaksa returns home after India visit

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa returned home on Friday evening on the conclusion of his official visit to India.

The island nation’s Minister, Douglas Devananda, who was part of the Presidential delegation and got into the limelight after a petition was filed for his arrest on the ground that he was a proclaimed offender in India, also returned with the Presidential entourage.

Mr. Devananda maintained that the cases against him in Tamil Nadu were filed prior to the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987.

“Under a provision of the accord, the then President, J.R. Jayewardene, had pardoned all the political activists and ex-combatants against whom cases were pending under the Emergency regulations and other laws,” he said.

The Minister said the accord vested the Sri Lankan President with the authority to pardon certain categories of persons convicted prior to the accord and expected Indiato cooperate. – (The Hindu)