My statement was in the context of election campaigning: Karuna

Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Col. Karuna Amman  who left the Criminal Investigation Department (CID)  today after providing a statement over six hours over his recent statement of him killing soldiers when he was with the LTTE during the war told reporters that his statement was being distorted by various parties for political reasons ahead of elections.

He told the media outside of CID that what he said was in the context of election campaigning and it was taken out of the context by the media and distorted.

"Now this has been used to reduce the votes from Sinhala people in the upcoming elections. I do not want to discredit our military which is an outstanding military force and assist people when in need," Karuna said.

Meanwhile a Fundamental Rights (FR) petition was filed in the Supreme Court today over the statement made by Karuna and sought Court directive to take legal action against him.

Earlier Acting IGP Chandana Wickramaratne had directed the CID to commence immediate probe into Karuna’s alleged statement, in which he claimed that he killed army soldiers between 2000 to 3000 in one night at the Elephant Pass.  

Karuna, addressing a gathering in Navadinveli, Ampara had openly claimed that he had committed crimes when he was with the LTTE.