2ND LEAD (correction, update)

Eastern University Vice Chancellor reported missing

[TamilNet, Saturday, 16 December 2006, 05:41 GMT]
S. Raveendranath, the Vice Chancellor of the Eastern University of Sri Lanka (EUSL), who was forced to resign his post recently following threats from paramilitary Karuna Group that abducted a Deen of the EUSL demanding the resignation of the Vice Chancellor, was reported missing since 1:30 p.m. Friday, Dehiwale Police in Colombo said. The VC was reported missing in High Security area in the Bauddhaloka mawatta.



Mr. Raveendranath, who was working at University Grants Commission (UGC) where he had submitted his resignation, was on his way to attend a meeting of Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science (SLAAS) at Vidya Mawatta near Bauddhaloka mawatta where he was last seen by his driver at 12:30 a.m.

The Vice Chancellor had instructed his driver to come back at 2:00 p.m. when the meeting is over.

The driver contacted the family as he could not get in touch with Mr. Raveendranath, family members have told media.

A complaint was registered at the Police around 9:30 p.m. Friday.

Raveendranath, 55, and father of two girls, was living in Colombo as his resignation was not accepted by the UGC.

Raveendranath began his carrer in 1978 in Karadiyanarau at the Institute of Agriculture, and he was a founder-member of the EUSL, founded in 1980.

On 30 September, unidentified gunmen, widely believed to be from Karuna group, came in a white van, kidnapped the Dean of Arts faculty at the EUSL, Dr. Bala Sugumar while he was at his Uppodai home in Batticaloa.

The kidnappers had demanded the immediate resignation of the Vice Chancellor of EUSL, Dr. S. Ravindranath, before releasing Bala Sugumar.

A senior lecturer of the Eastern University, Mr. Kumaravel Thambaiah, was shot and killed by the paramilitary group on 24 May 2004.

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