– Head of National Security Sectoral Oversight Committee

SLPP MP’s violent death during Aragalaya:

By Shamindra Ferdinando

Government parliamentary group member Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekera (Retd.) says the ruling party should be ashamed of its pathetic failure to ensure the speedy conclusion of investigations into the killing of Polonnaruwa District SLPP MP Amarakeerthi Atukorale at Nittambuwa on 09 May, 2022.

The government and police should explain the status of the investigation, the former Public Security Minister said, adding that the Parliament, too, should look into this matter.

Referring to the assassination of sitting and former MPs over the past several decades, during the northern and southern conflicts, the Colombo District lawmaker emphasised that there had never been a public lynching of an elected MP. The ex-Minister said that his colleague had been killed while the latter was on his was back home after attending a Temple Trees meeting chaired by the then Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Responding to The Island queries, MP Weerasekera disclosed that he had raised the issue at an SLPP Political Committee meeting held at former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa’s official residence at Wijerama Mawatha recently. According to him, among those present were SLPP founder Basil Rajapaksa and their National Organiser Namal Rajapaksa as well as Gamini Lokuge and C.B. Ratnayake.

The former Navy Chief of Staff emphasised that Nittambuwa police and the military could have easily saved the lives of the MP and his police bodyguard if they had swiftly intervened. Instead, they had simply watched a mob that included two Army commandos killing the MP and his police bodyguard, MP Weerasekera said, pointing out that all persons produced in court had been granted bail.

The ex-Minister said that he had asked the SLPP Political Committee how the party could expedite the case. He said he had pointed out to the Political Committee that police and military personnel could have opened fire without specific directives to do so if the lives of people, regardless of their standing in society, were in danger.

MP Weerasekera said that Rambukkana police had averted a major disaster by opening fire in a desperate bid to prevent a mob from setting fire to a bowser carrying 33,000 litres of petrol placed on 19 April, 2022. MP

Weerasekera quit his portfolio on the day before that incident at Rambukkana and Chief Government Whip Prasanna Ranatunga succeeded him as the Public Security Minister.

Declaring that during the public protest campaign (March 31, 2022 to July 20, 2022) the police and the military had been directed not to intervene at all, MP Weerasekera said that though he had sought an explanation from State Defence Minister Pramitha Bandara Tennakoon, in writing, regarding the inaction on their part, he was yet to receive ministerial response.

MP Weerasekera said he had raised the issue with State Minister Tennakoon, in his capacity as the Chairman of the Sectoral Oversight Committee on National Security. Gamini Lokuge and C.B. Ratnayake, too, had stressed the need for early action against those responsible for the cold blooded killing of the MP and his police bodyguard in public, Weerasekera said, insisting that the deplorable manner in which the probe into the killing of Athukorale was hand had led to a severe erosion of public confidence in the SLPP. “How could we reassure the public of security when those responsible for the killing of MP Atukorale and his police bodyguard were yet to be punished,” Weerasekera asked.

Weerasekera said that he was quite surprised and disappointed by media reports, in the second week of February this year, that the Attorney General challenged the Trail-at-Bar of the Gampaha High Court over 37 accused of the Nittambuwa killings being granted bail. The media quoted Deputy Solicitor General (DSG) Janaka Bandara as having told the HC that granting bail to the accused of such a criminal case, without consulting the AG, was against the law, MP Weerasekera said.

The DSG is on record as having said that the consent of the AG is compulsory in such a case. MP Weerasekera said that according to media reports, the accused had been released on two separate days. Five persons had been released initially and then the remaining 32 were released, MP Weerasekera said, adding that the SLPP couldn’t ignore that the AG challenged the Trial-at-Bar decision.

MP Weerasekera said that he intended to ask Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena to take up the issue with members of the Cabinet.