Vettivelu Jayanthiran, the main Jaffna District organizer of Sajith Premadasa’s Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB), faked his identity and also is a convicted criminal who served years in prison. SJB, which has a high chance of forming a government in Sri Lanka after the next general election, appointed such a person who faked his identity. Further, he has seduced young women and served a criminal sentence in France as explained below. Academics from Jaffna say that SJB failed to carry out basic diligence when they appointed a person for the most senior party-post in the cultural capital of Tamils. It is, they say, an act of humiliation and insult to the Tamils of Jaffna District. This appointment raises the question how the SJB can win the votes of the Tamils.
In the investigations conducted by ThesamNet, it has been revealed that Jayanthiran cannot travel through European airports under his own name and he has reduced his age to attract young women and has created a fake identity for himself to obtain impunity. For, in the mid-eighties, Vettivelu Jayanthiran, who lived in the suburbs of Paris, started and ran an event management business for which he recruited hundreds of illegal migrants, mainly Tamil. He used the business to commit fraud and exploit the Tamil migrant workers who didn’t have passports or other paperwork to work. He was arrested by the police, convicted and sentenced.
But Vettivelu Jayanthian went to Sri Lanka in 2003 after serving his prison sentence in France. In Colombo, government officials were complicit in Vettivelu Jayanthiran’s obtaining a fake identity card under a false name with a false date of birth. He obtained a fake identity card which reduced his date of birth by ten years (from 1959.07.29 to 1969.07.29 His place of birth was changed to Nallur instead of Jaffna and his name to Wettivelu Yajandran’ instead of Vettivelu Jayanthiran. Thereby he impersonated himself. These details can be found on his original and doctored identity card. His passport (shown here) also has the original details.
Money Flowing From Shivan Temple in La Courneuve, Paris:
Meanwhile Jayanthiran built a Shivan temple at La Courneuve. Temples are mostly public temples, owned by a trust. Some are owned by individuals like Jayanthiran. He runs the temple like a corner shop. He enjoys the income and funds his criminal activities from it. This was confirmed to ThesamNet on January 26, 2023 by a person who is currently managing the temple.
When ThesamNet contacted the temple’s phone number, the person answering stated that the income of the temple was being sent to “Kudumbi Jaya,” so nicknamed because of his long hair. Jayanthiran who used to run a violent rowdy gang in France, is this “Kudumbi Jaya,” says Thavakumar, whose family are devotees of the temple.
Hotel Lux, which is located in Nallur, Jaffna with a popular commercially-run swimming pool for the public, was bought and built by Jayanthiran from temple income. He also owns a number of properties in Colombo and Jaffna.
The only qualification for Jayanthiran’s appointment as the chief Jaffna District organizer of SJB seems that he owns Hotel Lux and that his pockets are full as required for an election. Muthu Ponnambalam, who is taking legal action in Canada against such anti-social activities, told ThesamNet that the illegal money or money earned from cheating people in the diaspora is degrading the people in the motherland.
As Muthu Ponnambalam states, wealthy criminals from the diaspora own effective slaves – that is, mercenaries (thugs) from Paris to Jaffna, and have been pumping drugs, alcohol, liquor and young girls to these thugs to serve their illicit activities.
Who is this Kudumbi Jaya?:
Vettivelu Jayanthiran is the third son of famous lawyer Ponnaiya Vettivelu from his first wife. Former Member of Parliament Yogeswaran, who was a respected leader of the Tamil United Liberation Front – TULF – was a maternal uncle of sorts to Jayanthiran. Following the divorce from Jayanthiran’s mother, Ponnaiya Vettivelu had an affair with another woman from an oppressed community and she set herself on fire due to his suspicions on her loyalties. She is still alive. After that incident Ponnaiya Vettivelu had married another woman.
It was Ponnaiya Vettivelu who argued for the EPDP in the murder case of EPDP Atputhan and won the case. However, Jayanthiran did not join the EPDP, because, as he states, he believes that the EPDP is a party of “lower castes.”
Jayanthiran, who attended a party recently, was proud of his father’s past-times. There he proudly boasted that it was his father’s hobby to enjoy young women from oppressed castes. Continuing about his father, Jayanthiran said his father would tell two of his workers named Muttaia and Kandhan to go to Kilinochchi to work on his land, and then would go to their houses in Jaffna and enjoy their young wives.
At that party, a member of the oppressed community who was nearby told ThesamNet, “There was an urge in me to get up and slap Jayanthiran. But I could not do anything.” He regretted his powerless inability. He said that it is very disgusting that our society is ready to listen, enjoy and tolerate this kind of atrocious boasts.
Kudumbi Jaya’s web of young girls:
Like his father Jayanthiran is spoiling the lives of many marginalized young girls by showing off his wealth, and by giving drugs and liquor. Jayanthiran, who is now in his sixties, has charmed a young lady who just turned 23 a few days ago, the same age as his granddaughter. In 2021, Jayanthan entered that girl’s family in a family-friendly manner after she had lost her father in an accident. In the Tamil sense, Jayanthiran was the deceased person’s elder brother. Entering in the name of “Periyappa,” he wooed the young lady.
Before that he had tried the girl’s mother. Its audio recording has caught the attention of ThesamNet. He is on record saying, “I will love you. You lost your life at a young age. You must live. I will give you all the money you need.” As soon as the mother got alerted to his intentions with the daughter, Jayanthiran pretended to care about the mother and took away her daughter as if to help the mother. When the mother contacted Jayanthiran to release her daughter, he responded, “You come to the hotel for a while and then I will leave her alone. Everything will be fine.”
Days after that conversation, the family went to the house where the daughter was kept and broke down the door of the house. The family went with the young women who is living for 10 years without marrying her. The house where the woman was staying had been installed and monitored with 8 CCTV cameras. A large quantity of perfume bottles, liquor bottles and condoms were found there.
Then the matter went to the Chunnakam police. But as per the law the girl is a major and it was the girl who decided to go with Jayanthiran. The law therefore could not do anything for the girl’s parents in this matter. From the Chunnakam police station, Jayanthiran who had gone there with more than 20 thugs in two vehicles, took her back. The incident took place on January 22, 2023. The girl who was kept by Jayanthiran has a younger sister who is sixteen years old. Regarding her, Jayanthiran gently told the child’s mother who lost her husband in an accident that he wonders how to save her other children: ‘She is cute too.’ Such will be the SJB Leadership in Jaffna after its expected triumph.
Kudumbi Jaya’s ‘Andhapuram’:
Kudumbi’s Andhapuram (meaning “That side” where keeps are kept) had three families and four children making up countless relationships. Jayanthiran, who was living together with a Mauritian woman in France, ended his relationship with her. The woman has a child with Jayanthiran. After that he married a twenty-year-old girl and has two children through her. They live in Colombo. Their divorce case is coming to the Jaffna District Court in March 2023. This divorce case has been taken by lawyer M A Sumanthiran who is a Member of Parliament from the Federal Party.
Prior to the divorce proceedings, Jayanthiran had been living with a young girl in her early twenties for ten years. The woman, now in her mid-thirties, also has a daughter. But Jayanthiran did not legally marry her. He had said to her that he would marry her after the divorce case is over. But now there is another young girl who got involved. He wants to get rid of the unmarried young women with his young daughter.
Not only these three women and four children but many more women have been misused and abused by Jayanthiran. He had betrayed a young woman who was close to Devalayam in Uduvil. She is still living and unmarried. Jayanthiran has tried to have a relationship with her younger sister too. Angered by these, Jayanthiran’s half-sister (daughter of Vettivelu’s second wife) who was supporting the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam at that time, complained to the LTTE about her brother’s unbridled sexual activities and exploitation of women. The LTTE investigated and interrogated Jayanthiran but released him after Jayanthiran agreed to make a huge financial contribution to the LTTE. Thennavan, who was a member of the LTTE living in Paris, called in Jayanthiran and questioned him. Thennavan confirmed that it is true, they did not punish Jayanthiran.
Jayanthiran has charmed all the above women by telling them the same story: “I have money. But there is no one to show me love.” Jayanthiran has attracted these young women by telling the same story of “I am alone and looking for love”. Then as the days passed and the sexual arousal wore off, he showed his true self after drinking: he beat, kicked and tortured his preys regularly. He has inflicted injuries on their faces and bodies and has left a wound in their hearts that will never heal. Then another woman joins his lengthening list of victims.
Most of these women belong to the “lower castes,” in Jayanthiran’s language. Some belong to marginalized families due to inter-caste marriages or are the daughters of those who are mothered by respectable-castemen like Jayanthiran’s father, Ponnaiya Vettivelu. Where there are no male figures in a family, Jayanthiran capitalizes on the lack of vigilance in such a family, its poverty, and its having no one to guard them, and he preys on young girls from a family to give vent to his lust. This is the greatest misfortune of the Tamil community.
Kudumbi Jaya’s entry into politics
Umachandra Prakash, Deputy Secretary of SJB, is also the party’s media spokesperson. Her role in bringing Jayanthiran into politics could not be confirmed. But she told a close friend of hers that she did not bring Jayanthiran into politics but she knew about Jayanthiran’s relationships adding in explanation that Jayanthiran’s personal life is different from his politics and that is why she has volunteered to travel with him in politics. It is noteworthy that Umachandra Prakash, a self-proclaimed feminist, is a maternal relative to Jayanthiran.
Umachandra Prakash is well aware of the plight of the three women who are victims: the mother of two children who are demanding a divorce because of Jayanthiran’s cruelty, the mother of the girl child who is currently living with Jayanthiran’s illegitimate child, and the now bewitched young girl whose child-like face is still intact. But for Jayanthiran’s money Umachandra Prakash is putting up with this for Lux Hotel which is the Jaffna District Office of SJB.
Spirituality – Politics – Power
If Jayanthiran was just a bully or a rowdy, it wouldn’t have made such a big impact. But Jayanthiran is the Chief Trustee of a Shivan temple, the chief organizer of a national party for Jaffna District. How do our religions and political parties lead our young generations? What kind of a society do we try to build in this island nation?
From the tigers of those days to the lions of today, no one saw the iniquity of people like Jayanthiran. As a result, such young girls fall prey to moneyed and influential men like Jayanthiran. This criminal who was imprisoned for crimes committed in Paris, wrote and published a kind of a biography “Through the Bars.”
In that book, Jayanthiran mentions that young girls fell for his charms and even his friends’ wives fell in love with him.
The cowards and scoundrels in Jaffna have the courage to beat innocent people who do not pay meter interest and take it away. Those in authority and Tamil political leaders don’t care about any of this. Several dozen Jayanthirans are still allowed to prey on marginalized Tamil girls.
Money is necessary for politics. So scoundrels like Jayanthiran are absorbed into politics. People like Jayanthiran get political status, then they use their money, politics and power to multiply their authority and become centers of power. In front of these the young girls fall as insects. If we want to save the young women, France La Courneuve Shivan temple should stop the euros falling into the undiyal (till), people should stop using Lux Hotel. The SJB should stop appointing scoundrels to positions of responsibility for money and alcohol. Not only Samagi Jana Balawegaya but every party should weed out the scoundrels in their parties. Are they ready for this?
About the Author:
Thambirajah Jeyabalan is a teacher / lecturer in the UK. Also, a freelance Tamil journalist and an editor, whose articles are published in many Tamil media including Thesam, ThesamNet, London Udhayan, London Kural and the youtube Channel Thesam Thirai. He is a social and political activist and a commentator since 1997. He published books including ‘Vaddukoddaiyil Irunthu Mullivaykkal Varai – வட்டுக்கோட்டையில் இருந்து முள்ளிவாய்க்கால் வரை and Ilankaiyil Thamil Kalvich Samugam: Yarl Palkalaikalakam Oru Paarvai – இலங்கையில் தமிழ் கல்விச் சமூகம்: யாழ் பல்கலைக்கழகம் ஒரு பார்வை.
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