Sri Lanka’s counterterrorism police questioned a former local government official for about three hours on Saturday about the funding of statues honouring two founding leaders of a Tamil militant group TELO. It was the latest step in an inquiry that began with his arrest in July.
Kanthasamy Satheesh, a former deputy chairman of the Valvettithurai Urban Council, was questioned at the Jaffna office of the Terrorism Investigation Division. Investigators focused on how the money for the statues was raised and who provided it, according to people familiar with the inquiry.
Political sources in Jaffna, citing police information, said investigators believe the sculptor who made the statues also made the bust of Thileepan, a political leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, that appeared unannounced at the Thileepan memorial site in Nallur. Those sources said Saturday’s questioning may have been partly an effort to obtain information about the sculptor. The sculptor has not been publicly identified, and the claim could not be independently verified.
The statues depict Kuttimani and Thangathurai, founding figures of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization, or TELO. Organisers had planned to unveil them in Valvettithurai, a coastal town on the northern edge of the Jaffna Peninsula, on July 25, the anniversary of the two men’s deaths in the 1983 killings at Welikada prison in Colombo.
On July 20, Valvettithurai police arrested Mr. Satheesh, who was among the organisers of the ceremony, on accusations of promoting terrorism, according to local news reports at the time. He was produced before the Point Pedro Magistrate’s Court and released on bail.
The police also tried to stop the statues from being erected. The court issued a temporary prohibition order but lifted it on Aug. 5 after the police failed to produce sufficient evidence to justify extending it, according to local reports.
Investigators later summoned Mr. Satheesh for questioning in Kilinochchi. Counterterrorism officers also visited his home in Valvettithurai before calling him to their Jaffna office on Saturday.
It remains unclear whether investigators have identified any unlawful source of funding or intend to bring further charges. No new arrest was reported after Saturday’s questioning.
Kuttimani, whose real name was Selvarajah Yogachandran, and Thangathurai, whose full name was Nadarajah Thangathurai, were among the earliest leaders of the Tamil armed separatist movement. Both were killed at Welikada prison during the anti-Tamil violence of July 1983, when 53 Tamil prisoners were killed over two days.
TELO, which once fought for an independent Tamil state, later gave up armed struggle and entered parliamentary politics. It remains a registered political party in Sri Lanka. In July, the party defended the proposed memorials as a legitimate act of remembrance. It said its transformation from an armed movement into a democratic party should be recognised and that peaceful commemoration should not be restricted.
The inquiry comes amid wider police scrutiny of memorials linked to Tamil militant movements. In October, detectives from the Criminal Investigation Department questioned the mayor of Jaffna, V. Mathivathani, about the installation of the Thileepan bust in Nallur. No one has publicly claimed responsibility for placing it there, and the police later seized it.
Thileepan died in 1987 after a 12-day hunger strike in Nallur directed at the Indian government. The site of his fast is the focus of an annual commemoration.