Missing VC received many death threats - Family members

Rajmi MANATUNGA

COLOMBO: Family members of the Eastern University Vice Chancellor Prof. Sivasubramanium Raveendranath yesterday disclosed that the 55-year-old academic who was abducted last Friday had received death threats from an unidentified group throughout the last three months.

In an interview with the Daily News, the children of Prof. Raveendranath said that the VC received continuous telephone calls threatening harm to him and his family since he moved to Colombo from the East.

"The first threat came when the group abducted the Dean of the Eastern University Arts Faculty Dr. B. Sukumar in September. They had threatened to kill Dr. Sukumar if father did not resign from the VC post. As a result, he tendered his resignation on October 2. The Dean was released later," the VC's son-in-law Dr. M. Malaravan said.

He said that after the resignation was not accepted, Prof. Raveendranath was requested to move to Dehiwala for security reasons and to discharge his duties from Colombo.

"He moved to Colombo three months back. Since his official vehicle was given for the use of the university, he used to take the bus or a three-wheeler for travelling.

But the week before his abduction he was given the vehicle of the University Rector as the latter went abroad. It was in that car that he was driven to Vidya Mawatha on the day of the abduction."

Prof. Raveendranath, a hypertensive heart patient and a father of two, was found missing Friday evening after he left home in the morning to participate in the Annual Conference of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science. He had been last seen at SLASS by a lecturer who attended the conference.

Dr. Malaravan said that though they did not know the identity of the abductors, it was possible that the group who abducted and later released Dr. Sukumaran was behind the abduction of his father-in-law as well.

"Before he was abducted, he told us that the people who threatened him over the phone in the last few months were the same as those who threatened him after abducting the Dean," he said.

The family members expressed their satisfaction regarding the progress of the investigations into the VC's disappearance.

"We know that the Government including the President, the IGP and the Ministers are doing their best to ensure his immediate release. But unfortunately there has not been any breakthrough in the investigations. We appeal to whoever that abducted him to release him on humanitarian grounds since his health would be at risk if deprived of his medication."