File photograph: Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, also known as Pillayan.
Sri Lanka’s Criminal Investigation Department has named TMVP leader and former state minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, widely known as Pillayan, as a suspect in a series of 2008 killings in the Eastern Province.
The CID informed the Batticaloa Magistrate’s Court on Monday that Pillayan and two other suspects had been implicated in three separate fatal shootings that left five people dead across the East.
According to reports submitted to court, the killings were carried out using T-56 assault rifles. The CID formally named Pillayan as the third suspect in connection with all three incidents.
The first shooting took place on 9 January 2008 near a playground adjacent to the Murugan Temple in Kallady, Batticaloa, where two people, including a former police officer, were shot dead. The second incident occurred on 22 May 2008 on Main Street within the Kattankudy Police Division, where two more people were killed. The third case concerns the night-time shooting of a man by armed assailants on 20 August 2008 in Kannankuda, in the Vavunathivu Police Division.
Investigators told court that the first suspect has fled the island and is currently living abroad. The second and third suspects had previously been arrested and interrogated by the CID under detention orders since 13 August and 13 November 2025 respectively.
After they were produced before the Batticaloa Magistrate’s Court on Monday, the two detained suspects were ordered to be remanded in judicial custody.
Pillayan is currently being held at Welikada Prison after his arrest in a separate case involving the abduction and killing of Eastern University Vice Chancellor Professor Sivasubramaniam Raveendranath.
The Batticaloa Magistrate directed the Superintendent of Welikada Prison to produce Pillayan before the Batticaloa Magistrate’s Court on a future date when the murder cases are called again.
The latest court filing comes months after the CID formally linked Pillayan to the abduction and killing of Professor Raveendranath, who disappeared in Colombo between 15 and 16 December 2006 while travelling through a heavily militarised High Security Zone.
File photograph: Professor Sivasubramaniam Raveendranath.
Investigators told court Raveendranath was taken to a clandestine camp in Sevanapitiya, Polonnaruwa, allegedly operated by Pillayan, where he was detained, tortured, killed and his body burned.
Witnesses also described the site as an illegal detention and torture facility where civilians, government officials and businesspersons were abducted and held.
In a Tamil Guardian interview, Raveendranath’s brother Raj spoke about his brother’s life, the circumstances of his disappearance, and the family’s enduring struggle for truth and justice.
“I am absolutely certain that Pillayan was involved in my brother’s disappearance. There’s no doubt in my mind. I’ve read news articles that Pillayan was connected to corruption at the university, and my brother, stood firmly against it,” Raj said.
Pillayan’s TMVP emerged after the 2004 split led by Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, known as Karuna Amman, from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The group aligned with the Sri Lankan state and has long faced allegations of abductions, killings and other abuses in the Eastern Province.