Former Eastern Province Governor Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, known as “Pillayan,” has confessed to the murder of Professor Sivasubramaniam Ravindranath, the then-Vice Chancellor of the Eastern University, ending 18 years of uncertainty over the academic’s fate.
Pillayan appeared before the Mount Lavinia Magistrate’s Court on April 2 after nearly a year in custody without a court appearance. According to Sri Lanka Brief, he confessed to a magistrate that the Vice Chancellor was murdered and his body burned in a torture chamber.
The 2006 Disappearance
Professor Ravindranath disappeared on December 15, 2006, after armed gangs allegedly linked to Pillayan threatened him and demanded he resign from his position. The academic’s fate had remained unknown for nearly two decades, with the case becoming one of the most prominent unresolved disappearances from the civil war era.
From Militant to Politician
Pillayan was a senior figure in the TMVP, a Tamil militant faction that broke away from the LTTE. He later entered mainstream politics and served as the Governor of the Eastern Province. His arrest and detention over the past year marked a significant turn in the long-stalled case.
The magistrate remanded Pillayan pending recommendations from the Attorney General as investigations continue. The confession represents a rare breakthrough in accountability for war-era crimes in Sri Lanka.
