Jaffna MP Elankumaran Denies Making Statement on Pardoning Pillaiyan and Karuna

Claim: Jaffna District Member of Parliament, Elankumaran Karunanathan, said that the NPP government and the President will not grant any pardon to Pillaiyan and Karuna, who betrayed the Tamil armed struggle to the Rajapaksas and the military.

Fact: NPP’s Jaffna District Member of Parliament, Elankumaran Karunanathan, has confirmed that he has made no such statement. There are no public records of him having made such a statement either.

Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, alias Pillaiyan, the leader of the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal(TMVP) political party, was arrested on the 8th of this month by the Criminal Investigation Department under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, on suspicion related to the disappearance of Prof. Raveendranath, the Vice-Chancellor of Eastern University. Furthermore, the CID officers have been granted permission to hold Pillaiyan in detention for 90 days for further investigation. Amid this, various discussions are circulating on social media regarding Pillaiyan and also concerning Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna Amman, the former Deputy Minister, in connection with the Vice-Chancellor’s disappearance.

In this context, a graphic card in Sinhala, carrying a photo of MP Elankumaran Karunanathan, is circulating on social media attributing the following statement to him-“Our government and the President will not grant any pardon to Pillaiyan and Karuna, who betrayed the Tamil armed struggle to the Rajapaksas and the military.”

These posts are circulating on platforms including TikTok, X, and Facebook and can be seen here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Due to the controversial nature of these posts, we decided to verify the authenticity of this claim.

Factcheck / Verification

On our initial verification, we checked whether any such news has been reported by mainstream media outlets, but found nothing relevant.

The graphics card showed a photograph of the MP in front of the Jaffna Elections Office. Therefore, we looked up the image using Google Reverse Image Search and found that the photograph, along with a few others, had been posted on the official page of MP Elankumaran Karunanathan under the heading in Tamil reads, “For the upcoming local government elections, the National People’s Power (NPP) paid the deposit today (14.03.2025) at the Jaffna District Election Office.“

Additionally, we also found video footage from the same location, in which he can be heard expressing his views to the media. However, he makes no mention of Pillaiyan or Karuna Amman in the said video, and can be heard commenting only on the upcoming elections. Moreover, a review of his recent press conferences and public statements confirms that he has not made any remarks regarding Pillaiyan, Karuna, or their legal status.

For further verification regarding these posts, we contacted Elankumaran Karunanathan, who confirmed that he had made no statements regarding Pillaiyan or Karuna, and that the viral graphic card is spreading false information. He further said that NPP has not put forward such views and added that Pillaiyan and Karuna will be dealt with under the law of the land.

We also checked other recent public statements by the MP and found no public record of him having made such a remark.

Conclusion

The social media posts claiming that NPP’s Jaffna MP Elankumaran stated that Pillaiyan and Karuna, ‘who betrayed the Tamil people’s armed struggle’ will not be pardoned, is false.

Result: False

Our Sources
News article published by Newswire on April 9, 2025.
News article published by Newswire on April 12, 2025.
Facebook post from the official page of MP Elankumaran Karunanathan, dated March 14, 2025.
News video posted on the People News தமிழ் Facebook page, dated March 14, 2025.
A denial statement from MP Elankumaran Karunanathan.

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