The Attorney General has filed indictments in the Polonnaruwa High Court against former Eastern Province Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, widely known as Pillayan, and three others over the abduction and murder of Eastern University Vice Chancellor Professor Subramaniam Ravindranath, NewsFirst reported.
The move takes a case that has run for close to two decades from investigation to trial.
The four accused
Alongside Chandrakanthan, the indictment names Kathirgathambi Jeyakishan, also known as Jeyanthan; Nimal Devsukan, also known as Jeyakandan; and Nadarasa Nagulendran, also known as Simbu or Nagulan.
The charges concern the abduction and subsequent killing of Professor Ravindranath, which the case places between 16 and 18 December 2006. The Vice Chancellor disappeared while travelling in Colombo and his body was never recovered.
A long accountability track
Chandrakanthan, a former commander of the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal who went on to serve as Chief Minister of the Eastern Province and later as a State Minister, has been in custody since his confession to the abduction and killing of Professor Ravindranath. He is being held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
He faces a separate Criminal Investigation Department case over five killings reported across the Batticaloa District in 2008, in which he was further remanded until August 18 — a date that falls tomorrow. That case has moved through a repeated chain of remand extensions since mid-July.
Neither the Attorney General’s Department nor the court has announced a trial date in the Polonnaruwa proceedings. No plea has been recorded, and the allegations remain untested in court.
The indictment is one of the few instances in which charges have been brought over the disappearance of a senior public figure during the final years of the armed conflict.
