The 11-year old girl, who was raped by navy personnel, said that the men kidnapped her during the day, raped her and released her in the afternoons for 11 days, TNA MP Saravanabhavan told media, after visiting the victim’s parents in Karainagar.

The MP said that the victim revealed that another 9 year old girl was also raped by the sailors, Ceylon Today reported.

Seven members of the navy were brought back to court on Monday, after being released on bail last week. The girl could not identify the attackers during the ID parade on Friday, as the police had brought in the wrong men to be identified in court, the MP charged.

Since the then the victim has identified the location of where the rapes took place to the police, the Uthayan reported.

Navy media spokesperson, Commander Kosala Warnakulasuriya however rejected all allegations of navy personnel being involved in the rape and said it was a ploy, brought about by the TNA, to dislodge naval presence in the area.

"Why should we produce the wrong people to courts? The police are the ones who are conducting investigations and we have extended our full support to the investigation. If a Navy man is found to be guilty, we will take the strongest possible legal action against them", the commander said.

Saravanabhavan said the investigations into the case were being done in an “improper manner” and there was pressure from the “powers that be” to acquit the military men.

The TNA MP for Jaffna questioned why the police did not put more effort into arresting the right suspects, given that the navy camp was close by.

According to Saravanabhavan, the case only came to light when the girl’s school enquired about her whereabouts to the parents, as she failed to attend school for 11 consecutive days. As the girl was only being held by the navy men during the day, the parents assumed that she was in school.

Kayts police identified the suspects as Ajith Kumara, Rupasinghe Arachchilage Chamara Indika, Nadeera Dilshan Rathnayake, Kudabalage Jayaweera, Indika Kumara Panditharathne, Ranasinghe Sumith Subhash and Vikum Senage Piyasiri Dissanayake of Karainagar Navy base. The sailors had been deployed to patrol the areas of Ureddikulam, Urkatturai, Karainagar city and Kayts.

Sexual violence and militarisation in North-East are closely interlinked – K Guruparan (20 July 2014)

Locals protest against rape of 11y girl by SL navy in Karainagar (19 July 2014)

Sri Lankan navy personnel suspected of rape released by police (18 July 2014)

11 year old girl raped by navy officer in Jaffna (16 July 2014)