Minister Jeevan Thondaman surrenders to court

The General Secretary of the Ceylon Workers’ Congress (CWC), Minister of Water Supply and Estate Infrastructure Development Jeevan Thondaman and three other senior members of his party have surrendered to the Nuwara-Eliya Magistrate’s Court through a motion filed today (29).

This comes after the court ordered the arrest of Minister Thondaman and to produce him before the court over an incident where the CWC General Secretary had allegedly stormed into the Pedro Tea Factory, controlled under Kelani Valley Plantations PLC, along with a group of his supporters on May 30, 2024.

During the hearing of the case on July 22, Nuwara-Eliya Police had stated before the court that they will not submit the names of the suspects to the court as the investigation activities have not been completed and that advice have been sought from the Attorney General in this regard.

However, the attorney who appeared for the plantation company submitted the names of the suspects to the court, stressing that the police is not taking actions to arrest the suspects, requesting a warrant be issued to arrest the suspects and produce them before the court. 

Accordingly, the Nuwara-Eliya Magistrate’s Court ordered the police to arrest Minister Thondaman and to produce him before the court over the incident.

However, Minister Jeevan Thondaman, National Convenor of CWC S. Satyavel, former Chairman of Nuwara-Eliya Pradeshiya Sabha Yoganathan and senior member of CWC Logadas have surrendered to the court today, the police said.

When the suspects appeared before the court, Nuwara-Eliya Magistrate ordered not to arrest them since the police have not named any suspects related to the case as of yet. Furthermore, the case was ordered to be recalled on August 26.

The magistrate also ordered the Nuwara-Eliya Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) or any other Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) to report facts to the court regarding the matter.