Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, his brother Basil Rajapaksa, and his son Namal Rajapaksa visited former Eastern Province Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, known as Pillayan, while he was held at Batticaloa Prison following the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks — and promised to secure his bail within a week of Gotabaya Rajapaksa assuming the presidency.
Deputy Solicitor General Dileepa Peiris made the disclosure before the Fort Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday, drawing on a statement obtained from Pillayan’s former private secretary, Asad Maulana, who now lives in France. The statement was recorded at Sri Lanka’s embassy in Paris.
The revelation marks the first time the Attorney General’s Department has placed three members of the Rajapaksa family at a prison meeting with Pillayan in the immediate aftermath of the Easter bombings. The disclosure surfaces as the accountability case continues to grind through the courts more than seven years after the attacks that killed 269 people.
The court previously heard from the Central Investigation Department that senior figures had held meetings with Pillayan in custody. The AGD’s submission on Wednesday adds specificity: the Rajapaksa family members communicated directly that steps would be taken to free him once Gotabaya took office — a pledge that was subsequently fulfilled.
Pillayan was arrested in 2019 over alleged links to the Easter Sunday bombings. He was released on bail after Gotabaya Rajapaksa became president. Pillayan has since confessed to the murder of Eastern University Vice Chancellor Raveendranath and remains in custody.
The disclosure came in the same session where the ASG formally named Salley as the Easter attacks mastermind, tracing the plot to a 2017 communal clash in Aliyar Junction. Separately, Namal Rajapaksa acknowledged the prison visit in a public statement on the same day.
