On the night of October 19, 2000, a group of gunmen approached the home of Nimalarajan, a journalist based in the northern city of Jaffna. He reported for various news organizations, including the BBC’s Tamil and Sinhala-language services, the Tamil-language daily Virakesari, and the Sinhala-language weekly Ravaya.
The assailants shot the journalist through the window of his study, where he was working on an article, and threw a grenade into the home before fleeing the premises. The attack occurred during curfew hours in a high-security zone in central Jaffna town. Army officers were summoned to the house, and they took the journalist to Jaffna Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The journalist’s parents and his 11-year-old nephew were seriously injured in the attack.
Local journalists suspected that Nimalarajan’s reporting on vote rigging and intimidation in Jaffna by the government-aligned paramilitary group Eelam People’s Democratic Party during the 2000 parliamentary elections may have led to his murder.
Sri Lankan president Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga ordered defense authorities to launch an immediate inquiry into the assassination. In an October 18, 2001, letter, CPJ urged the president to ensure that the investigation was pursued vigorously, and its findings made public. The letter further stated that Nimalarajan received death threats in the weeks leading to his murder.
In 2021, the Attorney General’s Department of Sri Lanka facilitated the release of several suspects in Nimalarajan’s murder and dropped charges against the six accused, two of whom were reportedly abroad at the time.
As of early 2025, Sri Lanka media minister Nalinda Jayatissa did not respond to CPJ’s text messages requesting comment on whether the newly elected government would pursue justice for Nimalarajan.
In February 2022, the War Crimes Team of the London Metropolitan Police arrested a 48-year-old man in connection with Nimalarajan’s murder. Police released the man, whose name was not disclosed, but continued to investigate him under Section 51 of the International Criminal Court Act of 2001, which covers war crimes.
Detective Inspector Helen Lomas of the War Crimes Team told CPJ by email in December 2024 that the investigation into Nimalarajan’s murder remained ongoing, and the department would “continue to work with civil society and the Sri Lankan community to identify further witnesses.”