Sri Lanka’s justice minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe said though a moratorium on the death penalty is in place, the decision has not been made to scrap capital punishment.

Speaking to The Sunday Leader he denied capital punishment had been scrapped but said “the Foreign Ministry is considering voting for the moratorium this year also”.

The European Union recently called for the abolition of the death penalty worldwide and welcomed Sri Lanka’s stand on the moratorium.

However, the government is set to interview candidates to fill the post of hangman this week, with the gallows at Welikada prison reportedly undergoing refurbishment.

Sri Lanka’s President Maithriapala Sirisena stated last month that he was expecting to approve capital punishment on the island by next year but, though he did not have to, would seek parliamentary approval first.

The Indian government has demanded an investigation into reports that an official from the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS) solicited “sexual favours” from Tamil war widows in return for houses from an Indian government-funded project.

The Indian Express reported that Indian foreign ministry officials were taking the matter “extremely seriously” and called for a joint probe with the SLRCS. Instructions were also passed on to the Sri Lankan foreign ministry to prevent the accused individual from leaving.

“We don’t want the accused officials to escape, so the Sri Lankan foreign ministry and their immigration authorities have been informed,” an Indian official said.

“India will not condone any such activity by any of the implementing partners of this project. The Government of India – through its High Commission in Colombo and the consulate in Jaffna – is conducting a joint probe along with the Sri Lankan Red Cross officials,” said an Indian High Commission spokesperson. Another diplomat told the Indian Express that the report would be investigated “expeditiously and thoroughly” and there was “no time-frame”.

The probe comes after the Sunday Times reported SLRCS Kilinochchi Branch Secretary Thampu Sethupathy had received more than 30 written and verbal complaints with similar allegations of demands for sexual favours.

The Sri Lankan military is using vehicles that fleeing Tamil civilians abandoned during the final phase of the armed conflict in 2009, reported the Sunday Times.

Citing the case of 62 year old Kanthan Thadchanasingham, a farmer from Kilinochchi, it reported the military was now continuing to use his tractor that he had abandoned as he fled from shelling during the final days of the armed conflict, which saw tens of thousands of Tamil civilians killed.

Mr Thadchanasingham, who lost his 12 year old daughter due to shelling in the final months of the war, told of how his family had fled from Kilinochchi to Mullivaikkal using his tractor. On the 15 May 2009, the farmer heeded the military’s call and crossed over to Sri Lankan government territory. He was subsequently held at the Menik Farm camp in Vavuniya.

Since then he discovered his tractor, abandoned at Mullivakkal is now under the possession of the Sri Lankan military, which has been using it at the Iranamadu military camp in Kilinochchi.

“I asked the military to handover my vehicle explaining the hardship we are facing but they refused. I went to many senior officials but nothing worked,” he said. “I even borrowed money from neighbours to get a Sinhala translator and to travel to the police station in Kilinochchi. I am now in debt.”

A 14 day joint military training exercise on “counter terrorism and insurgency operations”  between Sri Lankan and Indian military was completed on Monday.

Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Defence, said that the exercise was focused on “instilling confidence in each other’s capability to counter the common threat of terror.”