One of the co-founders of Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan has been arrested over several allegations against him and the most important of those allegations was that his alleged involvement in the Easter Sunday attacks in Colombo, Negombo and in Batticaloa in 2019. TMVP was founded soon after Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillaiyan and his colleague
Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna broke away from the LTTE in 2004.

Pillaiyan and Karuana remained as important cadres in the LTTE until both of them came out of the outfit and formed the TMVP. Karuna and Pillaiyan were in the good books of former President Mahinda Rajapakse and they were even given Ministerial portfolios. Pillaiyan became the first Chief Minister of the demerged Eastern Province and later became a Deputy Minister. Whereas Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna became a Minister in the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) Government led by former President Mahinda Rajapakse. Karuna was made a Parliamentarian from the National list of the UPFA by Mahinda Rajapakse and given a free hand to deal with the problems they faced with following their exit from the LTTE.

However Karuna and Pilliayan didn’t have a good rapport and they too had fallen out couple of years later their breakaway from the LTTE. However very recently Pilliayan and Karuna had come together and formed an alliance called Eastern Tamils Alliance and they had entered into a treaty between calling it a gentlemen’s treaty. Their reunion at the moment is considered as a move by both of them to join hands in the forthcoming Local Government polls in the Island.

It is in this backdrop former Eastern Province Chief Minister and the co-founder of the TMVP Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pilliayan has been arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Batticaloa. Soon after the arrest Pillaiyan was brought to Colombo by the CID to grill him on several other allegations surfaced against him. The allegations against him have come up with regard to his connection to the Easter Sunday attacks of 2019. Pillaiyan has also been suspected in connection with the enforced disappearance of university vice-chancellor in the Eastern Province Prof. S. Ravindranath in 2006.

It was on December 15, the Vice Chancellor of the Eastern University of Sri Lanka Prof. S. Raveendranath was abducted from his home in highly residential area in Colombo.
He was abducted when he was on his way to attend a conference of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science (SLAAS) in Colombo. On 20 September, the same year, gunmen abducted his colleague, the Dean of the Arts Faculty of the Eastern University, Dr. Bala Sugumar. It was widely reported that the kidnappers had demanded the immediate resignation of Prof S.Raveendranath in return of Dr Bala Sugamar’s release. Following Prof S. Raveendranath’s resignation , Dr. Bala Sugamar was released.The University did not accept his resignation, on the grounds that it was a Presidential appointment, but he felt it was not safe enough for him to return to the university, and had been carrying out his duties from Colombo.

In the meantime Prof. S. Raveendranath was forced to resign his post following threats from paramilitary Karuna Group. The Karuna group had associated closely with former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.  However after several years, former Chief Minister of Eastern Province Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillaiyan has been arrested over the disappearance of former Eastern University Vice Chancellor Prof. S. Raveendranath and various other allegations against him with regard to malpractices and killings.

It was before handcuffed and taken to Colombo by the CID, Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillaiyan speaking to a group of press men said that when he was in the LTTE, former JVP members had asked weapons from him and he didn’t give them the weapons after realising those weapons will be misused by the JVP against the people in the South. Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillaiyan also lambasted President Aunura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) as mad fellow to the pressmen who had met him. However since AKD had pledged to investigate on the Easter Sunday attacks in 2019, Pilliayan who has been accused of his involvement i nthe Easter Sunday carnage likely to be thoroughly grilled by the CID and the
investigators based on Pillaiyan’s revelations are expected to make more arrests.