A 34-year-old Tamil man who had been detained by the occupying Sri Lankan police in Mannar was found dead inside a holding cell on Friday morning, in what relatives have described as a custodial killing.
The deceased, identified as Rajendran Kapilan, aged 34, was a resident of Koopayankulam in Vavuniya. According to police reports, Kapilan had been arrested on Thursday evening within the jurisdiction of the Pesalai Police Division, allegedly on suspicion of involvement in drug-related activities.
Sri Lankan police claim he was apprehended after a brief chase, while another person accompanying him reportedly escaped. Following his arrest, Kapilan was detained at the occupying Pesalai Police Station for interrogation.
Warning. Graphic images below.
By Friday morning, he was found dead inside his cell. His body was taken to the Pesalai Regional Hospital at around 6:30 a.m. Mannar Acting Magistrate Jebanesan Logu visited the hospital later that day to conduct an inquiry, before proceeding to the police station to inspect the detention cell and continue investigations.
Authorities confirmed that Kapilan had been held in Cell No. 1 of the Pesalai Police Station’s detention section at the time of his death.
His mother, who arrived at the hospital shortly after, publicly accused the police of killing her son. “They beat my son to death,” she said, alleging that he was murdered while in custody.
The incident has sparked anger among locals and renewed concerns over custodial violence in Sri Lanka, particularly the Tamil homeland where reports of deaths in police and military custody have persisted for decades.
Rights organisations and Tamil political representatives have repeatedly accused Sri Lanka’s security forces of using torture and extrajudicial killings with impunity, despite international calls for reform. The United Nations has also raised concerns over Sri Lanka’s continuing record of custodial deaths and the failure to hold perpetrators accountable.
This latest death adds to a long list of similar cases across the North-East, where families continue to demand justice for those killed in Sri Lankan custody.
