Focus on clandestine meetings in B’caloa prison, Wanathavilluwa estate

By Shamindra Ferdinando

Former State Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan aka Pilleyan has refuted unsubstantiated claims made by his wartime Media Secretary Mohammed Milhilar Mohammed Hanzeer alias Azad Maulana in a Channel 4 interview in early Sept. 2023 pertaining to the 2019 Easter Sunday carnage.

Multiple blasts claimed the lives of about 270 people, including 40 foreigners, while nearly 500 sustained injuries.

Chandrakanthan, one-time Chief Minister of the Eastern Province and the leader of the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), has alleged that Maulana, who had been with him during the 2006-2022 period, propagated politically motivated lies in a bid to secure political asylum in Europe.

Chandrakanthan has made his position clear when the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) recently questioned him on Moulana’s accusations. Moulana served both Pilleyan and Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna Amman, one-time LTTE field commander, after the eastern Tigers sided with Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government.

Addressing the media outside the CID headquarters, Chandrakanthan said the CID, the Yahapalana administration had failed to deal with the threat of religious extremism effectively.

Chandrakanthan served as Rural Road Development State Minister during the Wickremesinghe-Rajapaksa government. The TMVP failed to secure at least a single seat at the recently concluded general election. Chandrakanthan contested from the Batticaloa district, where the Illankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi (ITAK) secured three out of five seats. The National People’s Power (NPP) and the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) obtained one seat each.

Maulana has alleged that former chief of Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) Maj. Gen. Suresh Sally met Chandrakanthan at the Batticaloa prison where he was held in connection with the 2005 Christmas Day assassination of ITAK MP Joseph Pararajasingham, at St. Mary’s church, Batticaloa.

Maulana also alleged that Maj. Gen. Suresh had met Easter Sunday suicide bombers, including their leader Zahran Hashim on a coconut estate in Vanathavilluwa, Karadiyapuval in the Puttalam district. The whistle-blower is also on record as having claimed that he received a telephone call from Salley on 21 April 2019 morning, the day of the Easter Sunday attacks directing him to pick a person from the Taj Samudra hotel, Colombo.

The Presidential Commission of Inquiry that probed the Easter Sunday attacks as well as a committee headed by retired Supreme Court Justice S.I. Imam, which conducted an investigation into the Channel 4 allegations, found that Maj. Gen Salley was neither in the country nor with the DMI at the time of the alleged meetings in Wanathawilluwa and Batticaloa.

Salley was serving at the Sri Lankan Mission in Malaysia at the time, and was at the National Defence College, India when the National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ) mounted the 2019 attacks.

Chandrakanthan told The Island yesterday (24) that those conducting investigation into Maulana’s allegation that Salley had visited him at Batticaloa prison could easily verify that claim with current prison administration. Chandrakanthan said that he had been held in the Batticaloa prison from 2015 to 2020. Among those held in the same prison at the same time were some of those taken into custody in connection with promoting religious extremism.

“No one could have met me at the Batticaloa Prison without the consent of the prison administration,” the former lawmaker said, dismissing claims that the Easter Sunday carnage had been carried out to facilitate Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s victory in the 2019 presidential election. Nothing could be more ridiculous than the claim that religious extremists mounted Easter Sunday attacks to facilitate Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s victory while at the same time accusing him of harassing minorities, Chandrakanthan said.

Whatever various interested parties said now, Gotabaya Rajapaksa or any other person fielded by the SLPP at that time could have comfortably won the presidential election, Chandrakanthan said, pointing out that the Local Government polls conducted in Feb 28 indicated in no uncertain terms that the southern electorate would overwhelmingly vote for the SLPP at presidential and parliamentary polls, the former State Minister said.

The Batticaloa High Court acquitted and released five persons, including Chandrakanthan after the Attorney General had informed the court that he wouldn’t proceed with the prosecution.

Chandrakanthan emphasised the responsibility on the part of the incumbent government to take tangible measures to have the so-called whistle-blower extradited as quickly as possible. Chandrakanthan alleged that Maulana was taking advantage of the situation to secure political asylum abroad.

The former parliamentarian urged the government to examine the negligence on the part of the security apparatus to handle a specific intelligence alert.

The ex-MP said that he would fully cooperate with the CID though he could not endorse lies under any circumstances. The crux of the matter was Maulana claimed that secret meetings had taken place in Batticaloa and Vanathavilluwa, where explosives were recovered subsequently, hadn’t been verified, Chandrakanthan said.