… points out violation of specific instructions issued by then IGP following HRCSL intervention

Weligama killing

Legal sources faulted the police for questioning the suspected assassin of Weligama Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman Lasantha Wickremesekera (SJB) on a road at Nawinna, Maharagama, on Sunday (26) evening.

Authoritative sources acknowledged that such unprofessional conduct, on the part of law enforcement authorities, could undermine the investigation into the high-profile hit.

Police identified the suspect as Hakmana Paranaliyanage Nuwan Tharaka, 34, a resident of Agulugama, Bendipita, Konthapana. Wickremesekera was assassinated in his office on 22 October.

Sources pointed out that those who had been assigned for taking the suspect into custody had acted contrary to specific instructions issued by Police Headquarters during the 2021/2022 period. The then IGP C. D. Wickremaratne prohibited the police from questioning suspects in the presence of media/outsiders to prevent social media/television reportage.

Sources said that Wickremaratne had made the intervention after the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) took up the issue after receiving complaints from various affected parties.

The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID), with support from the State Intelligence Service (SIS), arrested the suspect in a joint operation. However, other sources said that the Special Task Force (STF) apprehended the suspect who earlier in the day managed to flee in spite of a joint Police, STF and Army raid on a hideout at Kekirawa, Anuradhapura.

The raiding party arrested a man and a woman and recovered a motorcycle, Rs. 1.2 million in cash, quantities of heroin and crystal methamphetamine (“Ice”), and equipment used for drug consumption. The police immediately released the pictures of the escapee and sought public assistance to apprehend him.

In addition to the hitman, four others, including the woman apprehended at Kekirawa, are being questioned.

SJB sources said that it was the responsibility of the police to ensure a proper investigation. Sources said that the HRCSL, as well as the National Police Commission (NPC), should inquire into the circumstances the police made a show of the Nawinna arrest. As the team had been obviously certain of the suspect’s identity, he could have been taken in without attracting public attention, sources said. Instead, within hours the footage of police questioning him on the road went viral, sources pointed out, expressing concern over possible attempts at sabotaging the investigation.

At one point the police asked the suspect about the weapon used, from where he received orders and the getaway motorcycle.

A similar situation arose in July, last year, when television and social media showed Dulan Sanjula, who had been arrested in connection with the killing of Surendra Wasantha Perera, aka Club Wasantha, in July, 2024, being questioned by a police team. To make matters worse the police team, on video, included DIG G. Marapana, in charge of the Western Province. Wasantha was gunned down inside a tattoo salon near the Athurugiriya clock tower.

Both former BASL President Saliya Peiris, PC, and the then BASL Secretary Rajeev Amarasuriya rapped the police for allowing the media to cover Sanjula’s questioning. Ex-HRCSL member and lawyer Ambika Sathkunanathan, too, condemned the police action.

Attorney-at-law Senaka Perera, Chairman of the Committee to Protect the Rights of Prisoners, told The Island that such public interrogations were as bad as killing suspects in judicial custody. The police shouldn’t expect advantage by exploiting situations, lawyer Perera said, urging the powers that be to take remedial measures.

Meanwhile, SJB sources strongly criticized IGP Priyantha Weerasooriya for declaring that Kalutara District SJB lawmaker Jagath Vithana faced death threats as a result of his relationship with the underworld and organised crime.

The IGP’s statement was very much similar to that of Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala who claimed that Lasantha Wickremesekara couldn’t be granted police protection as the SJBer was a criminal.

The police alerted Jagath Vithana, on 24 October, of a possible attempt on his life several weeks after the IGP himself received information regarding the fresh development. IGP Weerasooriya is on record as having said that the MP had been provided police guard temporarily, pending investigations.

By Shamindra Ferdinando