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Unverified false information is often spread on social media to gain political advantage, and due to such posts, many social media users believe such posts to be true, without further considerations. Here is an investigation we did to check whether the social media posts that were circulated, claiming a statement from the former minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan.
Social media posts:
Several posts have been circulating on social media, purporting to be information disclosed to the Criminal Investigation Department by Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, who is being held at the Criminal Investigation Department under detention orders.
“It was Mahinda who ordered to bomb the Kataragama procession.
It was to take the two tusks of ‘Wasana’.. The attacks on the Sri Maha Bodhi and the Temple of the Tooth were all planned by Mahinda.. It was Mahinda who bombed Sarath Fonseka. The attack on the Poonaryn camp in 1993 and the Mullaitivu attack in 1996 happened with Mahinda’s orders.
At Kebitigollewa, we decided to put a 15-kilogram claymore, but Mahinda scolded us harshly and told us to put a 25-kilogram claymore. Mahinda, who had a lot of hatred for India was very happy with the attack on a Mumbai hotel in 2008.
Pillayan lost everything in the face of Shani’s tough questions.”
(“ කතරගම පෙරහැරට බෝම්බ ගහන්න කිව්වේ මහින්ද..
ඒ වාසනා ඇතාගේ දළ දෙක ගන්න.. ශ්‍රී මහ බෝධියට, දළඳා මාලිගාවට එල්ල කල ප්‍රහාර වල සැලසුම් සියල්ල මහින්දගේ.. සරත් ෆොන්සේකොට බෝම්බ ගැහුවෙත් මහින්ද.. 1993 පුනරින් කඳවුරට එල්ල කල ප්‍රහාරය හා 1996 මුලතිව් ප්‍රහාරය මහින්දගේ අනුදැනුම මතයි සිද්ද උනේ..
කැබිතිගොල්ලෑවෙදී අපි කිලෝ 15 ක ක්ලේමෝ එකක් තියන්න හදත් දී මහින්ද අපට පරුෂ වචනයෙන් බැණ වැදී කිලෝ 25 ක ක්ලේමෝ එකක් තිය පල්ලා කිව්වා.. ඉන්දියාව එක්ක ගොඩක් වෛරයෙන් හිටපු මහින්ද 2008 දී මුම්බායි හෝටලයකට ප්‍රහාරයක් එල්ල කරලා ගොඩක් සතුටු උනා
ශානිගේ දැඩි ප්‍රශ්ණ කිරීම් හමුවේ පිල්ලෙයාන් සියල්ලම වමාරයි.”)
This post was circulated among more than 3600 social media users.
Another post claimed that,
“The JVP has an agreement with Prabhakaran not to carry out armed activities in LTTE controlled areas.
They had agreed to accept Eelam. In return, the JVP was given weapons by the LTTE. The JVP provided intelligence information on the South to the TOSI intelligence service.”
It was also stated that Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan had stated that “JVP’s Bimal and Vijitha provided the necessary information to our organization’s intelligence units, directly supporting the Dehiwala train explosion and the Katunayake airport attack.” He has also mentioned that it was both of their need to put pressure on the government and there is no relationship between the two parties.
Several such posts had been circulating on social media, and the aggrieved party informed us that these social media posts were not true, and we took steps to investigate the official information on this matter.
Explainer:
Former State Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan also known as ‘Pillayan’ was arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department on April 8th and is being interrogated at the Criminal Investigation Department headquarters on a 90-day detention order. This relates to an investigation into the abduction and disappearance of former Vice-Chancellor of the Eastern University Professor Sivasubramaniam Ravindranath in 2006. The main media reports published in this regard are here, here and here.
However, in order to find the roots of the circulated statements which are claimed to be statements from Pillayan, we checked whether the Criminal Investigation Department, the Police Media Spokesperson, the Police Media Division, the Ministry of Defense, or the media has made statements regarding the relevant investigations. However, no mainstream media had published the above-mentioned circulating statements as statements made by Pillayan.
Similarly, Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala stated in Parliament on the 10th that a lot of information regarding his involvement at the Easter Bomb attack has been uncovered by Piilayan. However, he does not mention that the above-mentioned circulating information has been disclosed.
Police Media Division
We inquired the Police media division regarding this, and they stated that the investigation regarding ‘Pillayan’ is still ongoing by the Criminal Investigation Department and the official information has not revealed to them or the media yet. Therefore, they stated that it is unable to confirm the accuracy of this circulated information.
Minister of Public Security
We inquired the Minister of Public Security, Ananda Wijepala, and he mentioned that he hasn’t received a full report on the information revealed by Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan. He stated that as indicated in the social media posts, information related to the investigations has not been released to the media by their side, and the accuracy of those information has not been stated.
Also, during our inquiry he explained that as the former Parliamentary Minister Udaya Gammanpila acts as the lawyer of Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, the permission was granted to him to meet Pillayan.
Former Parliamentary Minister Udaya Gammanpila
We inquired Udaya Gammanpila regarding this matter, as he was granted permission to meet Pillayan after he was arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department. He stated that all the statements made by Pillayan involving Mahinda Rajapaksa are false and that he has not made such statements to the Criminal Investigation Department.
However, it is clear that circulating information claiming to be statements revealed by Pillayan are not official information released by the Criminal Investigation Department. The Police Media Spokesperson, Police Media Division, Ministry of Security or Minister of Public Security has not issued any official statement regarding this.
Accordingly, it can be pointed out that the information disclosed in these social media posts is unofficial and unconfirmed information. We hope to update this article with the above social media posts if official information is released regarding this.
We at Fact crescendo repeatedly remind our readers to not be misled by information circulating on social media and to always use only verified information based on official sources.
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Title:A clarification regarding the social media posts purporting to be revelations made by Pillayan, who is in the custody of CID
Fact Check By: Factcrescendo TeamResult: Insight
