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# CID Questions Douglas Devananda Over Azad Maulana’s Account
- URL: https://www.jaffnamonitor.com/featured/cid-questions-douglas-devananda-over-azad-maulanas-account/
- Published: 2026-09-24T17:35:51.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-24T17:35:51.000Z
- Author: Our Reporter
- Tags: JM Exclusive, Exclusive, September 2026

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka's Criminal Investigation Department on Wednesday questioned former cabinet minister Douglas Devananda for about three and a half hours over statements made by Hanzeer Azad Maulana, a former aide to Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, the former Tamil militant leader known as Pillayan.

Mr. Devananda, the leader of the Eelam People's Democratic Party, or EPDP, was questioned at the CID headquarters in Colombo, commonly known as the Fourth Floor. The questioning focused mainly on Mr. Maulana's account of his early connections with Mr. Devananda and with two former Tamil militant leaders, Pillayan and Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, better known as Karuna Amman.

According to CID sources familiar with the questioning, Mr. Devananda arrived at about 8:30 a.m. and gave a statement until around noon. He remained at the premises for roughly another half-hour because of heavy rain before leaving, the sources said.

The central question, according to the sources, was Mr. Maulana's claim that Mr. Devananda had introduced him to Pillayan. Mr. Devananda denied this before the CID and told investigators that it was Pillayan and Karuna who had introduced Mr. Maulana to him.

The questioning also covered several other parts of Mr. Maulana's account, including his association with Thinamurasu, a Tamil newspaper linked to the EPDP, and his later employment at the Sri Lanka Cashew Corporation. Mr. Devananda disputed most of that account, the sources said.

Investigators asked Mr. Devananda about Mr. Maulana's father, Mohammed Mihilar, a member of the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front, or EPRLF, who used the nom de guerre Kamalan. Mihilar was killed in Chennai in June 1990 along with K. Padmanabha, the leader of the EPRLF, and other members of the group.

Mr. Devananda told investigators that he had not personally known Mr. Maulana's father, according to the sources. He said he had already left the EPRLF by the time Mihilar became involved with the organization, during the deployment of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka.

Investigators also asked about Mr. Maulana's claim that he had worked at Thinamurasu. Mr. Devananda told the CID that Mr. Maulana had never been employed by the newspaper, the sources said. He said Mr. Maulana may have contributed a poem, an article or other material, since thousands of people had contributed to the publication over the years, but that he had not worked there.

The CID further questioned Mr. Devananda about Mr. Maulana's employment at the Sri Lanka Cashew Corporation and whether he had helped him obtain the position. Mr. Devananda said he could not recall whether he had personally arranged the appointment, according to the sources. He told investigators that the circumstances could be established by examining the corporation's employment records and questioning its former chairman.

Mr. Maulana, who later became a spokesman and political aide to Pillayan, came to prominence as a whistleblower after appearing in Channel 4's 2023 documentary "Sri Lanka's Easter Bombings," in which he made a series of allegations about events leading up to the April 21, 2019, suicide attacks on churches and luxury hotels.

Many sources familiar with Mr. Maulana's background, however, have described him as an opportunist and say his claims were made to support his bid for asylum in Switzerland.

Among his most consequential claims was that he had arranged a meeting between members of the extremist group linked to the bombers and Suresh Sallay, a military intelligence officer who later became director of the State Intelligence Service. Mr. Sallay has denied the allegations.

Mr. Maulana's testimony has since become part of investigations into whether there was a broader conspiracy behind the Easter attacks, and into the accuracy of his own account.

Mr. Devananda's statement to investigators challenges several details in previously published accounts of Mr. Maulana's background, particularly those concerning his father's relationship with Mr. Devananda and his employment at Thinamurasu.

Those accounts have described Mihilar, or Kamalan, as a close associate of Mr. Devananda during their years in the EPRLF, and have said that Mr. Devananda later helped Mr. Maulana obtain work at Thinamurasu. Mr. Devananda's statement to the CID, as described by the sources, directly disputes them.