Kuttimani
| Selvarajah Yogachandran | |
|---|---|
| Died | 25 July 1983 Welikada Prison, Colombo, Sri Lanka |
| Nationality | Sri Lankan Tamil |
| Occupation | Founding member of Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization |
| Known for | Sri Lankan Tamil nationalism |
Selvarajah Yogachandran, (Tamil: செல்வராஜா யோகசந்திரன்) (died July 25, 1983) also known as Kuttimani was one of the leaders of the former Tamil militant organization TELO from Sri Lanka. He was arrested and sentenced to death, and was killed in the 1983 Welikada prison massacre along with the other TELO leader Nadarajah Thangathurai.
Selvarajah Yogachandran along with Nadarajah Thangathurai inspired several Tamil student radicals to rise against Sri Lankan state terror and founded the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization in the late 1960s. The group formally constituted itself into an organisation in 1979, inspired in part by the LTTE and the Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students (EROS). Soon, it had become the most effective of the Tamil militant groups except the LTTE.
Kuttimani was a firm believer that only a free, independent country for the island's Tamils in their traditional homeland will protect their legitimate rights.
Kuttimani, Nadarajah and many others would later be arrested in 1981, in a brutal and intensive government crackdown of most of the Tamil liberation groups and activists.
Before his death, Kuttimani was officially nominated to the Vaddukoddai constituency in October 15, 1982, when the then sitting member of TULF party, T.Thirunavukkarau died on August 1, 1982. However the legal sources, then under the control of President J. R. Jayewardene, ruled that Kuttimani's nomination as a member of parliament was invalid. The then Prisons Commissioner Priya Delgoda announced on October 16, 1982 that Kuttimani would not be released from prison to take his oaths at the parliament. Kuttimani's appointment was gazetted while he was under a sentence of death. In a statement issued to explain the reasons for nominating Kuttimani to the vacant parliamentary seat, the TULF officials included five. Among these are two prominent reasons: (1) Kuttimani's nomination is a token protest against the state terrorism perpetrated from time to time through the agencies of the police and military personnel especially on the young Tamils of the country. (2) It is a protest against the death penalty imposed on Kuttimani and Jegan. Subsequently on February 4, 1983, Kuttimani's death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment under the general amnesty proclaimed by President Jayewardene. After this, Kuttimani resigned his Vaddukoddai seat in the parliament, to which he was nominated.
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