Pro-government paramilitary leader Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, also known as Karuna Amman, was seen leaving Sri Lanka's Criminal Investigation Department in Colombo last week after giving a statement over the disappearance of former Eastern University Vice Chancellor Prof. Sivasubramaniam Raveendranath.
According to the local press who had arrived at the CID office, Karuna had been grilled for several hours. Speaking to media Karuna said he was asked to give a statement over the disappearance of the VC.
Minister in Rajapaksa govts & ex paramilitary Vinayagamoorthy Muralidaran (Karuna) leaves #SriLanka’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) after giving a statement over the 18 years ago disappearance of ex Eastern University Vice Chancellor Prof. Sivasubramaniam Raveendranath. pic.twitter.com/KIC0i68OI4
— LankaFiles (@lankafiles) December 20, 2024
In 2006, on the 15th of December, the Vice Chancellor of the Eastern University of Sri Lanka was abducted within a high security zone in Colombo 7. Prof. Raveendranath was on his way to attend a conference of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science (SLAAS), when he went missing. "Since he was in an area tightly controlled by the military, it seems likely that his captors are an armed group operating with the tacit support of the security forces," said Amnesty International, in a statement on the 20th of December.
Prior to his disappearance, on 20 September the same year, gunmen abducted his colleague, the Dean of the Arts Faculty of the Eastern University, Dr Bala Sugamar. It is widely reported that the kidnappers had demanded the immediate resignation of Sivasubramanium Raveendranath in return for Dr Bala Sugamar’s release. Sivasubramanium Raveendranath handed in his resignation and Dr Bala Sugamar was released soon after. The University did not accept his resignation, on the grounds that it was a presidential appointment, but he had not yet felt it was safe enough for him to return to the university, and had been carrying out his duties from Colombo.
According to TamilNet reportage of the incident at the time, Prof. Raveendranath was forced to resign his post recently following threats from paramilitary Karuna Group. The Karuna group is headed by the pro-government paramilitary leader who has long been associated with former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
The case of the disappearance of Raveendranath in 2006 is one of the many cases that the new Sri Lankan administration has pledged to re-open and expedite. The other cases include:
- The alleged Central Bank Bond scam of 2015
- The Easter Sunday attacks of 2019
- The kidnapping and murder of Tamil journalist Sivaram in 2005
- The disappearance of political activists Lalith Kumar and Kugan Muruganandan in 2011
- The alleged suicide of businessman Dinesh Schaffter in 2022
- A shooting incident outside the W15 hotel in Weligama in 2023