The story of the traitor who became a hero to the Tamil Diaspora

Somaratna Rajapaksa who raped and murdered Krishanthi Kumaraswamy and snatched her necklace.

The narrative built on the basis of human skeletal remains unearthed from the Chemmani Sithupathi Hindu cemetery has now become the main trump card of the global Tamil separatists and their local representatives. In the meantime, an interesting story about it was told by Arun Siddharthan, who challenges the elite Tamil political cluster. He said that the cremation of the dead bodies of low-caste Tamil people in Jaffna had been banned by the high-caste Tamils, and therefore the corpses found in the Chemmani area could be those of the low-caste people he represents. But it is the elite high-caste Tamils who are carrying these skeletal remains, which could be of low-caste people, around the world.Among others, Gary Sangaree, a powerful figure in the Canadian Parliament and government and son of Ananda Sangaree, a politician from the northern elite society who was the leader of the Tamil United Liberation Front and the son of its leader, emphasized that a credible international investigation into the Chemmani skeletons is needed.

The Chemmani story comes to the fore after Chandrika Bandaranaike assumed the presidency and after the operation to liberate Jaffna. Accordingly, Operation ‘Riviresa’ began on October 17, 1995. The joint operation managed to liberate Jaffna within 50 days of its successful advance. Its victorious day was December 5, 1995. As the operation advanced, what the LTTE did was to retreat with the Tamil people, using them as a human shield. By December 1st, defeated LTTE members had fled to the jungle via the Kilali lagoon.

Then, the displaced Tamil people started returning to Jaffna to settle in May 1996. The army also provided the necessary support, and a very good relationship had been built between army members and Tamil people. This was because Tamil residents who had been suffering due to LTTE activities were given the opportunity to start their normal lives again. Although money was charged for Tamil people to travel via the Kilali lagoon under LTTE rule, all that stopped after the army captured Jaffna. However, although Jaffna and the peninsula were liberated, LTTE activities did not completely stop. Therefore, military operations were carried out searching for LTTE members hiding among the public.

The Chemmani military checkpoint, which kept a watchful eye on people and vehicles entering the city, monitored the main road entering Jaffna city via Chavakachcheri past Kaithady on the Jaffna-Kandy A-9 road.

In April 1996, the ‘B’ detachment of the 7th Infantry Battalion of the Army took over duties at this checkpoint. They performed duties there until September. The head of the team was Corporal Somaratna Rajapaksa. Rajapaksa is the one who became the origin of the Chemmani myth.

A few months after Rajapaksa and his team took over the checkpoint, that is, in September, an eighteen-year-old schoolgirl named Krishanthi Kumaraswamy went missing. Krishanthi went to school in the morning and returned home via the checkpoint. Not only she but many Tamil residents traveled through it. Rajapaksa, who joined the Sri Lanka Army in 1990, had been keeping an eye on Krishanthi after coming to the Chemmani checkpoint, as later investigations confirmed.

On September 7, Krishanthi went through Chemmani to the funeral of a school friend who had died in a traffic accident. Returning from the funeral, she was detained at the checkpoint. It was Somaratna Rajapaksa who ordered it. Krishanthi’s mother Rasamma, who knew well the time her daughter would come home, became alarmed because her daughter had not come home even in the evening. While she was searching for her daughter, several people had mentioned that Krishanthi had been detained at the checkpoint. Following that clue, she ran to the checkpoint and inquired about her daughter. Krishanthi’s younger brother had also come with her mother.

Somaratna Rajapaksa told the mother and brother that he had not detained such a person. But by then, Krishanthi was in Somaratna’s sentry post with her limbs tied. But the helpless Krishanthi did not know that her mother and brother had come looking for her. The mother and brother, who firmly believed that their daughter was at the checkpoint itself, stayed there.

Somaratna Rajapaksa tells them to go and inquire from the Ariyalai military camp headquarters. But the mother rejected his request and continued to stay there. Then, on Rajapaksa’s orders, the mother and Krishanthi’s younger brother and a neighbor were forcibly detained. By this time, darkness was falling. Afterwards, what spread rapidly was that not only Krishanthi but also her mother, younger brother and another neighbor had disappeared.

Meanwhile, although Jaffna was liberated, various operations were underway. Rajapaksa and his team, who served at the Chemmani checkpoint, were called up for these operations. News of the disappearance of Krishanthi and her family spread rapidly and various parties began pointing fingers at the army.

At that time, it was also discussed in Parliament and Tamil public representatives like then Member of Parliament Joseph Pararajasingham drew the attention of President Chandrika Kumaratunga to it. Accordingly, a team including Colonel Kalinga and Major Podiralahami of the Military Police started investigations into this disappearance. Brigadier (later Major General) Janaka Perera, who was the Divisional Commander in charge of the area at that time, personally intervened in this incident and ordered strong action to be taken if the army was involved in this incident. Captain Lalith Hewage (later Brigadier), who was the Executive Officer (Adjutant) of the 7th Infantry Battalion at that time, gave full support for these investigation activities.

Investigations confirmed that it was Somaratna Rajapaksa who was in charge of the checkpoint at the time of the disappearance. When questioned about it, Somaratna Rajapaksa, who was well practiced in lying from the beginning, told a story that misled the investigators.

He had also taught the army and police members who were at the checkpoint that day to tell the same story. Accordingly, it was that a girl in school uniform was seen riding a bicycle towards the Kaithady area and that several members of another army battalion were seen chasing her. Captain Lalith Hewage immediately informed the Commanding Officer of the 7th Infantry unit of the information told by Rajapaksa and his team. The reason for initially believing Somaratna’s statement was that the officers of the battalion had not given instructions to arrest ordinary civilians. Another factor that contributed to it was that police members were also attached to that checkpoint. Because of this, investigations were diverted elsewhere. It was a victory for Somaratna. He was an expert in misleading.

Meanwhile, Captain Lalith Hewage provided all necessary information without delay. He gave the support that had to be given from his side. As we mentioned above, by around the end of September, the 7th Battalion had to participate in operations to recapture Kilinochchi.

After capturing Kilinochchi, while the 7th Battalion was engaged in security duties there, on the instructions of the Commanding Officer of the unit, Captain Lalith Hewage came to the Ariyalai headquarters to inspect the belongings left there. As the Executive Officer of the unit, looking after the belongings and paying attention to the discipline of the soldiers was part of the Captain’s duty. A small child who came to him when Captain Lalith Hewage went to Ariyalai gave him a clue.

The child mentions that Krishanthi Kumaraswamy and her brother were detained at the Chemmani checkpoint and that his friend had seen it. After questioning the child and confirming that he was not telling a lie, it was learned that he was a classmate of Krishanthi Kumaraswamy’s younger brother. Surprised by the suddenly received clue, the Captain immediately went to Kilinochchi and informed his Commanding Officer about it. Accordingly, investigations began.

A considerable number of soldiers of the 7th Battalion had died in the operation to liberate Kilinochchi. Another group was injured and receiving treatment. Only two soldiers who had served at the checkpoint were in the unit. They were novice soldiers. Captain Lalith Hewage began questioning them. The information they revealed was unbearable even for an experienced army officer like Lalith Hewage to listen to.

The soldiers said that on the orders of Somaratna Rajapaksa, Krishanthi Kumaraswamy had been raped and killed and that her mother and the aforementioned group had been killed before that. Krishanthi had been subjected to a gang rape. Unable to bear the torture, she had asked to be looked upon as a sister, and asked if he did not have sisters like her. Also, she had said that her mother and family were waiting and asked to be sent home now. Not listening to any of that, Rajapaksa had forcibly ordered the others to rape her and watched. At times she mentions to give her a ten-minute break. She had also asked for some water to drink. Finally, Somaratna Rajapaksa, who was in a delirious state, raped her and snatched the gold necklace she was wearing around her neck. (Later, investigators were able to find this gold necklace after Somaratna Rajapaksa had given it to one of his sisters and she had pawned it at a pawn shop)
Finally, Somaratna Rajapaksa had hit Krishanthi with the handle of a hoe, killed her and buried her.

After this story was revealed, Captain Lalith Hewage handed over the two army soldiers to the Military Police. By this time Somaratna Rajapaksa had gone to Colombo. He was arrested in Colombo. Another soldier was on leave. Before he knew about these investigations, Captain went to the Panagoda camp and he was also arrested and handed over to the Military Police. According to the Military Police and regular police investigations, charges were filed against three policemen who served at the checkpoint that day.

Meanwhile, Somaratna Rajapaksa had escaped from Welikada prison. One day, when a prison officer who was on duty at Welikada prison went to Kegalle prison, he saw Rajapaksa there. He had been remanded on a charge of robbery. There he was again brought back to Welikada. The case against him and the other accused was heard for two years before a special three-judge bench. While the case was being heard, Somaratna Rajapaksa asked the officers of the 7th Infantry Battalion to help him get bail. But no officer came forward to get bail for a person like him. Instead of coming forward, the officers of B team gave evidence that Somaratna Rajapaksa was in charge of the checkpoint at the time he committed this crime. Two police officers who served at the checkpoint with Rajapaksa were named as state witnesses. At the end of the trial, Somaratna Rajapaksa and his team were sentenced to death. Somaratna Rajapaksa, who had been misleading investigators from the beginning and using various tactics, told a story he had not told during the two years of the trial at the end of the trial.

He said that there is a mass grave in Chemmani and that higher officers gave them, including soldiers, the bodies of Tamil nationals killed at the main camp of the 7th Infantry Battalion for burial there. He primarily targeted Captain Lalith Hewage.

The reason for that was that officer acting according to military law caused Somaratna Rajapaksa to be hanged. For giving full support to investigations against his heinous crime. Later this was investigated. An international-level genetic test was also conducted. But all of it confirmed that officers including Lalith Hewage were not involved in such a war crime. An expert report has also been received that Chemmani was not a place where people who were mass-murdered were buried.

Somaratna Rajapaksa’s hatred did not end there. When the controversy over Chemmani arose last year in 2025, he also said that he was ready to give evidence in any international investigation. Somaratna Rajapaksa’s wife has also informed the President in writing that her husband is ready to give evidence. Now it is clear that the Tamil Diaspora including the pro-Tiger faction is behind this drama. It should not be forgotten that the Tamil Diaspora is now trying to carry around the world a person who raped and killed an innocent schoolgirl named Krishanthi Kumaraswamy while she was shedding tears, snatched the gold necklace chain around her neck and put it around his own sister’s neck, and went to the gallows for the crime of murdering Krishanthi’s entire family. The Diaspora conspiracy to use such puppet criminals against the renowned officers of the Sri Lanka Army who dedicated themselves for the country must be defeated.

On that day, ten brigades under three divisions were stationed in the Jaffna Peninsula. Police, including Tamil police officers, were attached to every army checkpoint. It is understandable even to a person with a brain in their knee that in a Jaffna where there are thousands of such Tamil police officers as well as Tamil people, four or five hundred people cannot be killed and buried in an area of about an acre without their knowledge. Apart from that, it is clear that Somaratna Rajapaksa, who is being swept away in the water, is trying to get sympathy for the crime he committed by clinging to a straw.

For that, he is trying to mortgage the fame of the Sri Lanka Army. Somaratna went to the gallows because the army acted according to the law in the Krishanthi Kumaraswamy case.

Now it is clear that this is an attempt for the devil to break the threshing floor while leaving.

Varuna Abeysekar

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