Colombo: It was celebration time at the country's maximum security prison here, as 28-year-old Madvan Ranjani tied the nuptial knot with her former LTTE hardcore cadre heart-throb who is serving a 15 years sentence there.
Apparently, a determined Ranjani decided to wait long enough to marry her school days boyfriend.
The 38-year-old former tiger combatant, Ramiah Ravindran, who married Ranjani yesterday at the Welikada Prison near Colombo had been sentenced to life imprisonment 10 years ago for his activities.
However, the sentence was subsequently reduced to 15 years.
The smiling long haired Ravindran in a white attire and beaming Ranjani in blue saree were also photographed on the occasion.
High ranking prison officials, Red Cross members and a few political leaders were present at the wedding function to wish the couple success to begin a new life after Ravindran’s release, local media reports said.
Ravindran is due to be released in 2015.
The 19th century Welikada jail is a maximum security prison and the biggest in Sri Lanka, built during the British period.
President Rajapaksa had released over 745 former LTTE cadres, including child soldiers, in January from Vavuniya's Menik Farm welfare village after their rehabilitation. Out of those released, 98 were children.
Three batches of people in government custody were released in October, November and December last year.
Many of the former rebels, including child soldiers, had quit the LTTE at the height of the military operation against the Tamil Tigers in Wanni and surrendered to the security
forces.
They went through a rehabilitation programme at the Nawasenapura Rehabilitation Centre at Welikanda in Southern Sri Lanka.
The government has launched initiatives to rehabilitate more than 11,000 LTTE cadres with help from civil society, corporates besides the International Organisation for
Migration (IOM) and USAID.
Sri Lankan government is also considering expediting legal proceedings against nearly 11,000 former LTTE combatants.
This is to fast track the proceedings against the former Tigers held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and Emergency Regulations.
PTI
First Published: Friday, March 19, 2010, 15:41