In November 2015 former soldier Nalaka Mathakadeera, J. L. Mahinda and Tennis Aruna Shantha Edirisinghe were arrested in connection with the assassination. In October 2015 "The Sunday Leader" identified Petty Officer Seneviratne as the assassin and claimed that the weapon used in the assassination had been handed to the Pillayan, leader of the TMVP paramilitary group, by Colonel Shammi Karunaratne of the army. Pillayan then gave the weapon to Sivakanthan Vivekanandan alias Charan who then handed it to Seneviratne. On 3 November 2015 six people – three navy personnel (Pradeep Chaminda (Chandane) alias Vajira, Lieutenant Commander Hettiarachchi and Petty Officer Seneviratne), two Karuna Group/TMVP paramilitaries (Palanasami Suresh alias Sami and Sivakanthan Vivekanandan) and a police officer (Fabian Royston Toussaint) – were charged with Raviraj's murder. A fourth navy personnel, Lieutenant Commander Munasinghe Arachchige Nilantha Sampath Munasinghe alias Navy Sampath, was charged in December 2015. Three of the seven charged, Suresh, Toussaint and Vivekanandan, are not in custody. Toussaint is believed to be running an eco-consultancy business, Eco Support Consulting, in Australia. Vivekanandan is believed to be in Switzerland. Two suspects in the case, Nalaka Mathakadeera and Tennis Aruna Shantha Edirisinghe, were released by Colombo Additional Magistrate Nirosha Fernando on 8 December 2015. Another suspect, former Police Constable Sampath Prithiviraj Wijeya Wickrema Manamperige Sanjaya Preethi Viraj, had turned state witness. The trial of the six suspects (Chaminda, Hettiarachchi, Seneviratne, Suresh, Toussaint and Vivekanandan) began on 7 September 2016 at Colombo High Court in front of Judge Manilal Waidyatilaka. On 27 October 2016 Waidyatilaka allowed the defendants' attorney's request for the case to be heard by a jury consisting exclusively of Sinhala speakers. This was despite objections from lawyers representing Raviraj's family. Police Constable Viraj, the state witness, was released on 22 December 2016.