Dy. Minister Watagala blames killing of Ganemulle Sanjeewa on previous rulers

By Saman Indrajith

Public Security and Parliamentary Affairs Deputy Minister Sunil Watagala told Parliament  yesterday that slain underworld figure Ganemulle Sanjeewa was a victim of a culture of eliminating evidence.

Participating in the second reading stage debate on budget 2025, Watagala said Sanjeewa had much information pertaining to crimes that had been committed at the behest of previous regimes and the latter was killed to prevent him divulging those secrets. “They could have been used as evidence against the former rulers who had perpetuated the culture of killing evidence. We launch an investigation against Tuesday night killing at Middeniya. That victim had stated in interviews that he and others carried out criminal contracts of the Rajapaksas. We’ll investigate all these hushed up crimes,” Watagala said.

He said that the Magistrate Court used to be cleared before its sessions by the STF and police K-9 units. This was stopped under the Ranil Wickremesinghe presidency with effect from Jan 02, 2023. They dismantled court security and now wept buckets lamenting that national security is in danger,” he said.

They have eliminated or misplaced evidence pertaining to all controversial killings. They have messed up evidence in cases pertaining to the killings of Lasantha Wickremetunge and Wasim Thajudeen. They have perpetuated this evidence killing culture for 17 years. Now they lament over national security. But if they think that they would be safe, we tell them to wait and see.

“I warn the criminals in the Opposition, prescriptive period for crimes in this country is 20 years. So, what you did during the past 17 years is still open for investigation,” Watagala said.