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Batticaloa’s post-Pararajasingham politics remains volatile as ever, 15 years after his murder
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Batticaloa District Parliamentarian Shanakiyan Rajaputhiran Rasamanickam was fifteen when he saw the breaking news on TV announcing the gruesome assassination of former Parliamentarian of Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Joseph Pararajasingham during midnight mass held at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Batticaloa in 2005.
Today after fifteen years, as a sitting MP representing the district once late Pararajasingham represented, Mr. Rasamanickam still vividly remembers how the late MP who happened to be a family friend was respected and beloved by his electorate. But the mood in the district is mixed with a recent development over the assassination case.
The St. Mary's Cathedral where 15 years ago during midnight Christmas mass, Batticaloa District Tamil National Alliance Parliamentarian Joseph Pararjasingham (right) was gunned down by LTTE terrorists
After five years in custody over the assassination, former paramilitary group leader and onetime Eastern Province Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan and four other suspects were granted bail by the Batticaloa High Court on November 24 — exactly a month before the 15th anniversary of the cold-blooded murder.
The other suspects include former Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Puligal (TMVP) National Coordinator and Eastern provincial councillor Edwin Silva Krishnanantharaja, K. Kanaganayagam and former Army intelligence officer M. Kaleel. The five suspects were arrested in October 2015 after the previous ‘Good Governance’ government announced that it would revisit the past high-profile assassinations and attacks against the journalists.
“What I am more surprised about is the fact that the Attorney General’s Department did not object to the bail for the five suspects who were detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) but it did so against the youths charged under the PTA for sharing on 
Facebook pictures of slain LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran on Maveerar day last month,” Mr. Rasamanickam told the Sunday Times, pointing out the selective manner in which laws were being applied by the country’s top legal office.
Among some seven youths who are in custody, one of them was arrested for merely being tagged by one of his Facebook friends on the disputed post. At least more than a dozen persons were arrested by police last month for allegedly organising commemorative events in the district and charged under the PTA, a draconian law with tough bail conditions.
Moves to secure the release of Pillayan began no sooner than President Gotabaya Rajapaksa took office in November last year. Those efforts were fast tracked with revision petitions filed at the Court of Appeal after the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) formed the government following its landslide victory in the August general election. Pillayan contested the election while in remand custody and obtained the highest number of preferential votes (67,692) from the district.
After he got elected to Parliament, Pillayan secured a court order to take part in Parliamentary proceedings. In September, while Pillayan was still in PTA custody, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa appointed him as the Co-Chairman of the Batticaloa District Coordinating Committee (DDC). The appointment letter was handed over to him in Parliament.
He then sought a court order to allow him to co-chair the DDC meeting. The other co-chairman is Eastern Governor Anuradha Yahampath. But the AG’s Department raised objections. The Court overruled the objection and allowed him to participate in the meetings.
Challenging the indictments filed by the AG’s Department against the five suspects at the Batticaloa High Court (case number 3057/2017), two revision petitions were filed at the Court of Appeal last year.
The revision petitions called for a voir dire inquiry — commonly known as ‘trial within a trial’ or a separate hearing in court to determine questions of fact and law after hearing evidence from witnesses. The petitions were filed on the basis of Article 138 of the Constitution and Section 364 of Code of Criminal Procedure Act (1979) arguing that the testimonies obtained from the suspects in the Judge’s confidential chambers were not voluntary but were influenced.
A three-member bench comprising Court of Appeal President A.H.M.D. Nawaz, Justice A.A.U Wengappuli and Justice Devika Abeyratne rejected the testimonies obtained from the suspects.
Mangaleswari Shankar, one of the lawyers who represented Pillayan, told the Sunday Times two contradictory witness statements obtained from the suspects were submitted in court and their authenticity was questioned during the revision hearings.
When Pillayan was released on bail, he had to be escorted to his residence in a Special Task Force (STF) security detail jeep since hundreds of his supporters gathered at the Batticaloa Court complex made it difficult for him for a swift exit. With a garland in his neck, Pillayan told the crowd that his arrest and years-long detection were a ‘politically motivated’ witch-hunt, and he had come back to serve the people who voted for him. A long vehicle convoy of his supporters followed him behind the STF jeep.
Within weeks, the release of Pillayan reflected on the grassroots level politics as well. When the TMVP found it lacked the adequate numbers to pass next year’s budget of the Valaichenai Pradeshiya Sabha it controls, party supporters resorted to political stunts and even violence.
TMVP leader Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan, the prime suspect in the killing of TNA MP Pararajasingham, is seen here with his supporters after being released on bail last month
Pillayan visited the council to ensure that the budget was passed. The Council’s Secretary was taken from his locked office by force and the budget was passed in a closed room. Two councilors had to be hospitalised due to a clash later.
“I don’t think TMVP supporters would have orchestrated this kind of worst act in public, had Pillayan been in remand custody. Now they think they can get away with such activities without facing any consequences,” Mr. Rasamanickam said, adding that he could feel the change in grassroots-level politics since Pillayan’s release.
The Pillayan-led TMVP gained ground despite many allegations. Pillayan took over the party leadership after a rift with the LTTE’s former Eastern command chief turned politician Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna Amman, who later joined the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and became its vice president.
Just two weeks before Pillayan was released on bail, a TMVP top official was arrested again in connection with a 2008 double murder for intimidating a witness. The arrest followed a recommendation from the AG.
While Pillayan is on bail and free to attend parliament and continue party politics, family members, friends and supporters of the Mr. Pararajasingham continue to demand for justice although fifteen years have passed since the midnight murder in the cathedral during Christmas mass.
Reflecting on his life and legacy of Mr. Pararajasingham, Veluppillai Thavarasa, a Batticaloa Municipal Council member and a longtime right hand man of the late MP in his electoral politics, said: “I think that the vacuum created by the death of Mr. Pararajasingham is yet to be filled as no one has emerged so far with his calibre and courage to be the voice of the Batticaloa people.”