The Criminal Investigation Department on Monday presented details of five killings dating back to 2008 to the Batticaloa Magistrate’s Court, naming three suspects including former Eastern Province Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan — better known as Pillayan — in connection with the cases.
Magistrate Annathurai Darshini was told that the CID was pursuing investigations against Pillayan, Rasik Mohamed Faiz and Hameed Lebbe Mohamed in relation to a series of fatal shootings in the east of the country, NewsFirst reported.
The first incident, on January 9, 2008, involved the shooting of two people near a playground next to the Murugan Kovil with a T-56 assault rifle, the CID said. On May 22, 2008, investigators told the court, two further individuals were shot dead on the main road in Kattankudy. The CID also presented facts on the killing of Alagathurai Dharmalingam, a resident of Koththiyapola in the Vavunathivu Police Division, who was shot dead by an unidentified armed group.
The Batticaloa hearing comes as Pillayan remains in custody following his earlier confession to the 2006 abduction and killing of Eastern University Vice Chancellor Professor S. Ravindranath, a case that opened a sustained accountability track against the former TMVP leader and Eastern Province politician. The Supreme Court recently concluded fundamental-rights hearings on petitions linked to his detention, while members of the Rajapaksa family acknowledged visits to him in prison earlier this year.
The Batticaloa proceeding extends the post-war accountability cluster around eastern-province killings into a new set of cases that, until now, had not been formally connected to Pillayan in open court.
Ada Derana reported additional procedural detail subsequently confirmed by the CID: the first of the three named suspects — Pillayan, Rasik Mohamed Faiz and Hameed Lebbe Mohamed — is alleged to have fled the country, while Faiz and Mohamed have been in custody under detention orders since August 13 and November 13, 2025 respectively. The Batticaloa Magistrate has directed prison authorities to produce Pillayan on a future date for the case.
