Petition against Douglas

10 June 2010 06:00 am

An Indian advocate has filed a public interest petition at the Madras High Court seeking the arrest of Minister Douglas Devananda, in connection with pending criminal charges while he is in India accompanying President Mahinda Rajapakse on his four day visit.

Devananda is a proclaimed offender in Indian and liable for arrest, the CNN-IBN reported.

However, Devananda told CNN-IBN: 'I am not aware that I am a proclaimed offender. If informed legally about it, I will respond to the case. I have been coming to India for medical and personal reasons. The Indo-Sri Lanka accord of 1987 had pardoned several Tamil Sri Lankan."

Devananda now enjoys diplomatic immunity in India since he's a state guest. Devananda was declared a proclaimed offender and an absconding accused by a Chennai court for murder and rioting in Chennai in 1986.

Devanada was a member of a separatist group in Sri Lanka then. He's said to have gone underground in 1994 before being declared a proclaimed offender.