Courts have granted bail to a suspect in a case of assault of a journalist who has exposed financial fraud in a farmers’ organization in Kilinochchi.
Police have claimed a ‘slip up’ after it arrested just one suspect although the journalist gave full details of the two men who had come to his house in two motorcycles and attacked him on 15 January.
Subramaniam Baskaran said they also used their helmets to break the gate.
On the same day, when police visited his house, he identified the attackers as the son of the treasurer of the Iranamadu agricultural association and an officer of the association.
Baskaran said he was attacked after he exposed massive financial fraud in a farmers’ association in Kilinochchi, on the basis of details he obtained under right to information from the Agrarian Development Department.
With Rs. 37 million of assets, the Iranamadu agricultural association has no proper registration with authorities nor membership fees deposited in a bank account.
Furthermore, it has not submitted audit reports to the Agrarian Development Department.
Making his exposures via several media outlets, Baskaran said a person who oversees agricultural land had been paid Rs. 115,000 per month for a period of nine month without the memberships’ knowledge, whereas he should have got paid Rs. 750 a day.
Only that person was arrested by the police, who was subsequently produced before the Kilinochchi magistrate and given bail.
The next hearing of the case is due on 02 July.
When Baskaran made inquiries from the police, it had admitted a ‘slipup’ and promised to arrest the other suspect as well.
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