Sri Lanka’s former Eastern province Chief Minister Sivanesaturai Chandrakanthan has been arrested for his alleged involvement in the 2005 murder of a senior Tamil politician, police said on Sunday.
“There were two LTTE members arrested earlier for the murder of Pararajasngham. We wanted to question Mr. Chandrakanthan for the investigation. This evening he came to the CID in Colombo to give his statement. He was arrested on suspicion,” Police spokesman and Assistant Superintendent Ruwan Gunasekera said.
Pararajasingham, a senior Tamil politician was gunned down on December 25, 2005, while attending a Christmas day mass at the St Mary’s Church in the eastern town of Batticaloa.
Accusations were levelled at Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulihal (TMVP) of which the suspect Mr. Chandrakanthan was a senior member.
The TMVP was created by the former LTTE’s second in command Karuna who broke ranks with the LTTE in early 2004.
Mr. Chandrakanthan was elected the eastern chief minister in 2008 and was also acting as an advisor to the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Pararajasingham’s murder was one of the several killings that figured in the accusations levelled against the Rajapaksa administration during its successful military campaign which crushed the LTTE’s over three decades old fight to create a separate Tamil homeland in 2009.
