Image: Circled Iniya Bharathi
Former Eastern Provincial Councilor K. Pushpakumar alias ‘Iniya Bharathi’, a close aide of Pillayan, has been arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department.
The CID’s Homicide and Organized Crime Investigation Teams have arrested him on charges related to a 2006 kidnapping. In addition, Sivalingam Thawaseela has also been arrested along with Iniya Bharathi.
Inaya Bharathi is notorious for violence including election violence.
According to the police, these individuals have been arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act No. 48 of 1979 based on information revealed during the investigations into the murders.
Former Vice-Chancellor of the Eastern University, Professor Subramaniam Ravindranath, was abducted and disappeared in Colombo on December 15, 2006. In connection with this incident, TMVP leader and former State Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan was arrested by the Colombo Criminal Investigation Department at his office in Batticaloa on April 8 and detained for 3 months under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
Iniya Bharathi also served as a Coordinating Secretary and District Organizer of the ruling party during the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime. Currently, Iniya Bharathi is the Coordinator of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party in the Ampara District.
It is said that Iniya Bharathi was arrested in this manner based on the facts revealed during the interrogation of Pillayan. He has been a frontline leader of the LTTE organization and has later worked with the Karuna Amman faction. He was also accused of abducting and disappearing several people in the Thirukkovil and Vinayagapuram areas between 2005 and 2009, and was also accused by the United Nations in 2011 of disappearances and child recruitment.
It is also reported that officers of the Criminal Investigation Department and the Police Special Task Force have recently conducted searches in areas surrounding Pillayan’s Batticaloa office. Police say that a stock of important documents, several mobile phones and a satellite phone were found in the office of Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan.
During the interrogation of Pillayan by the Criminal Investigation Department, in addition to the murder of former Vice-Chancellor of the Eastern University, Professor Subramaniam Ravindranath, information is also being revealed about the shooting death of a police officer and a civilian in the Batticaloa area in 2008, the shooting death of a person in Pillayan’s organization in Kattankudy, and the murder of a businessman in the Batticaloa area in 2007 and 2008. The police are also said to have uncovered information about several camps run by Pillayan to detain people who oppose him.
(Translated form whatnes.lk)