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# India Signals It Can Help in Anojan Case After Sri Lanka Formally Approaches Saudi Arabia
- URL: https://www.jaffnamonitor.com/featured/india-signals-it-can-help-in-anojan-case-after-sri-lanka-formally-approaches-saudi-arabia/
- Published: 2026-09-24T04:40:52.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-24T04:49:36.000Z
- Author: Our Reporter
- Tags: September 2026

**COLOMBO, Sri Lanka** — India has told a Sri Lankan opposition lawmaker that it could act to help Sivarasa Anojan, a Sri Lankan migrant worker sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia, once the Sri Lankan government formally approaches Saudi authorities and makes a request on his behalf.

Santosh Jha, India’s high commissioner to Sri Lanka, conveyed that position during a meeting with Mano Ganesan, the leader of the Tamil Progressive Alliance, according to Mr. Ganesan. Under the position Mr. Jha described, any Indian involvement would follow a formal request from Colombo to Saudi Arabia.

Mr. Ganesan and a delegation from his alliance met Mr. Jha to ask for the direct intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, arguing that India could use its relationship with Saudi Arabia to help secure a humanitarian outcome. The delegation gave Mr. Jha a written appeal addressed to Mr. Modi.

Mr. Ganesan was accompanied by Paraneetharan Murugesu, general secretary of the Democratic People's Front; Bharath Arulsamy, its vice president; and Gopi Ganesamoorthy, the alliance's organizer for Batticaloa District. Mr. Ganesan said the alliance wanted to support the government's efforts while pursuing other ways to save Mr. Anojan. Last week, he urged President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to ask Mr. Modi to intervene personally with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia.

In a separate effort on Wednesday, members of Parliament from the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi, the country's largest Tamil party, met Mr. Jha and Anthony V. Pirnot, the political and economic counselor at the United States Embassy. The delegation included Shanakiyan Rasamanickam, the leader of the party's parliamentary group. All party lawmakers took part except Sivagnanam Sritharan, a member of Parliament from Jaffna, who did not attend either meeting. It was not clear why.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f0/aa/f0aaf7b7-6b61-437a-846a-1a80de683912/content/images/2026/09/india-signals-it-can-help-in-a-9f6f37-1-3.jpg)

ITAK lawmakers meet Indian High Commissioner Santosh Jha in Colombo on Wednesday to seek India’s assistance in the case of Sivarasa Anojan, who has been sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia.

The lawmakers said in a statement that they spoke on behalf of Mr. Anojan's family, briefed the diplomats on the case, and asked for help in securing his release. The statement did not say how the diplomats responded.

Mr. Anojan is from Natpiddimunai in Kalmunai, in the Ampara District of the Eastern Province. In July, the Criminal Court in Al-Ahsa sentenced him to five years in prison and fined him three million Saudi riyals, about $800,000\. The court convicted him of two offenses: publishing material through an information network likely to undermine religious values and public morals, and verbally insulting the Prophet Muhammad, which the judgment describes as prohibited under Sharia and for which no written penalty exists.

His family was told an appeal could reduce the sentence and agreed to pursue one. The Saudi prosecution filed its own appeal, asking that he be prosecuted under Sharia law rather than the country's cybercrime law. An appellate court sentenced him to death on Sept. 17\. His lawyer, who attended the hearing, first told the Sri Lankan Embassy of the decision verbally. The embassy has since received the written judgment.

Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath told Parliament on Tuesday that an appeal Sri Lanka had submitted on Mr. Anojan's behalf was rejected. He said the government was seeking advice from Sri Lankan and Saudi legal experts and that a delegation led by the deputy speaker would travel to Saudi Arabia to deliver a letter from Mr. Dissanayake to the Saudi king asking for a pardon. Mr. Herath said he expected to meet the Saudi foreign minister next month on the sidelines of the United Nations Human Rights Council session and would ask that the sentence be commuted or reduced.

Mr. Dissanayake has instructed officials to speed up diplomatic and legal efforts and to keep up engagement with Saudi authorities.

Mr. Rasamanickam has urged the government to hire experienced independent lawyers, pursue every remaining legal and clemency option, and raise the case at the highest level in Saudi Arabia. His mother has asked Mr. Dissanayake to bring her son home.