CID raids Douglas Devananda's Kayts EPDP office

The Jaffna headquarters and Kayts camp of the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), a government-backed paramilitary group accused of abductions, murders, and disappearances of Tamil people over several decades, have been subjected to a search operation by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

Acting on information received by the Criminal Investigation Department and a search warrant obtained from the Jaffna Magistrate's Court, the party headquarters located at the old Sridhar Cinema Hall on Stanley Road was subjected to a rigorous search lasting several hours on Monday, during which officials recorded statements in the presence of party leader Douglas Devananda. According to regional reports, a special CID team from Colombo also searched the EPDP camp in Kurumadam, Kayts, on Tuesday.

Authorities have not yet officially stated the specific purpose of these searches, and no findings have been reported. However, according to the police, the search of Devananda's house and office is one step in an investigation into unlicensed firearms allegedly connected to him. Responding to this, Devananda stated that he welcomes these searches and that he had sent a letter to the President of Sri Lanka requesting an investigation into the allegations against his party.

These operations are launched against the backdrop of a recent series of investigations into firearms linked to Devananda and the EPDP organization. In December 2025, he was arrested and remanded after a pistol, allegedly issued to Devananda by the Sri Lanka Army in 2001, was found in the possession of underworld leader Makandure Madush in 2019. Subsequently released on bail, the CID is currently investigating 19 other firearms allegedly issued to his faction by the army.

In addition to the firearms charges, the CID has also questioned him about the connections between Devananda and Azad Maulana, a former spokesperson for the TMVP organization who made revelations regarding the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings. Before joining the TMVP, led by Sivanathurai Chandrakanthan, in 2006, Maulana began his career working for the EPDP newspaper under Devananda.

These new investigations are once again bringing serious allegations about the EPDP's past activities to the forefront. The leader of the EPDP, which operated as a paramilitary group in conjunction with the Sri Lankan armed forces throughout the armed conflict, served as a minister in several successive governments, including that of Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is accused of committing war crimes and genocide against the Tamil people.

In 2008, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported eyewitness accounts linking the EPDP to abductions in Jaffna. Furthermore, the 2015 United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) investigation into Sri Lanka revealed that the party was involved in murders and maintained close ties with military intelligence. A former member has also accused the EPDP of actually carrying out some murders attributed to the LTTE, and the party is suspected of being behind the disappearance of Father Jim Brown in the islands in 2006.

Amidst these decades-long allegations, Tamil families of the disappeared have also organized protests in front of EPDP offices, demanding Devananda's arrest. In addition to all this, Devananda being named a proclaimed offender in India in connection with a Chennai shooting incident in 1986 that killed one person, clearly reflects the seriousness of his legal and political history.