Contempt of court case against Archaeological Minister in Kurundurmalai issue

Member of Parliament MA Sumanthiran said that a case would be filed in the Court of Appeal against the Minister of Heritage in connection with the illegal construction of a shrine on Kurundur Hill.

He said this during a press conference held at the TNA office in Vavuniya today.

Vidura Wickramanayaka, Sri Lanka’s state minister for ‘national heritage’, accompanied by army soldiers and archaeology department officers, led an event on  18.01.2021 at Kurunthoormalai in which a new Buddha statue was placed and consecrated at the site of the Athi Aiyanar temple.

The temple site, on a hilltop in the Kumulamunai area of  Mullaitivu, has been the target of intense landgrab efforts by Sinhala Buddhist monks, met with fierce resistance from locals which in 2018 led to a court order decreeing that no changes could be made to the site. The court also stated that the archaeology department had abused its power in allowing Buddhist monks to survey the area.

Sumanthiran further stated the following:

Northern Provincial Council Former Member Ravikaran has lodged a complaint with the police   in connection with the breaking of the Hindu symbol at Kurundur hill. Following that he went with the police yesterday and showed the broken traces. Therefore, it has been proved that what was there was broken.

We are going to file a case against this in the Supreme Court or the Court of Appeal.

We will immediately file a contempt of court case in the Court of Appeal against the  Minister Vidura Wickremanayake and his associates for violating the order already issued by the Mullaitivu Magistrate Court.