Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, the former LTTE eastern commander and ex-deputy minister better known as Karuna Amman, appeared before the Criminal Investigation Department on Monday morning to give a statement in an ongoing investigation into an alleged abduction, NewsFirst reported.

Police said he had been summoned as part of inquiries into the case and was questioned by investigators through the course of the day. He left the CID premises in the afternoon once his statement had been recorded.

Police did not identify the abduction being investigated, and the filing names no victim, no date and no other person under inquiry. Muralitharan was summoned as a person whose statement was wanted; nothing in the account indicates he has been arrested, named a suspect, or charged.

Which case this is has not been stated

That omission matters, because this is not the first time the CID has taken a statement from him, and the previous occasions concerned different matters.

In December 2024 Muralitharan was questioned at the CID for several hours and told reporters afterwards that the subject was the kidnapping of Prof. Sivasubramaniam Raveendranath, the Vice-Chancellor of the Eastern University of Sri Lanka, according to Sri Lanka Mirror’s report at the time. Raveendranath disappeared on 15 December 2006 after being taken within a high-security zone in Colombo 7, on his way to a scientific conference. The case remains unresolved.

In June 2020 the CID opened a separate inquiry into remarks he made at a public meeting in Ampara about killings he said he had carried out as an LTTE commander. That investigation concerned a statement, not an abduction.

Monday’s filing does not say whether the current inquiry is a continuation of the 2024 questioning or a different case altogether. Both the 2024 and 2026 accounts describe the same sequence — a summons, several hours of questioning, departure in the afternoon — so the similarity of the reporting is not evidence that it is the same investigation. On this occasion Muralitharan made no reported comment to the media, which is how the case was identified two years ago.

Background

Muralitharan commanded the LTTE’s eastern forces before breaking from the organisation in 2004, in a split that significantly weakened it. He later entered government politics and served as a deputy minister. Allegations relating to abductions and disappearances in the east during and after that period have been the subject of intermittent police inquiries for close to two decades, few of which have produced prosecutions.

Not reported

Police have not said which abduction is under investigation, who the complainant is, when the alleged incident occurred, or what prompted the summons now. The account does not say how long the questioning lasted, whether Muralitharan will be summoned again, or whether anyone else has been questioned in the same inquiry. It carries no comment from Muralitharan or his lawyers, and no indication of the stage the investigation has reached.

The story was reported by NewsFirst and had not been carried by another verified newsroom at the time of writing.

Sources