26 April, 2024

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New Evidence In Lasantha Murder

The Lasantha Wickrematunge murder investigation now handled by the Criminal Investigations Department ( CID) moved a step further when they honed in on the initial investigators. The initial investigations into Lasantha Wickrematunge’s murder were conducted by the Mt Lavinia Police and Mirihana Police.

Lasantha Wickrematunge

Lasantha Wickrematunge was murdered on the 8th of January 2009 along Attidiya Road, near Malagala School,Ratmalana around 10.00 am by Army Intelligence personnel riding Black Coloured Motor Bicycles. The CID informed the Mt Lavinia Magistrate on an earlier hearing that they have sufficient evidence that the murderers were from the Army Intelligence.

The murdered Senior Journalist had been followed from his home along the way to his office by the perpetrators giving the victim considerable time to make several cell phone calls. Amongst the calls the late Lasantha Wickrematunge made were persons such as Malik Samarawickrama, Killy Maharajah and even Temple Trees to reach former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The former President did not come to the phone stating that he was in the shrine room. He was not. To some the  late Journalist stated that he had taken down the Motor Cycle numbers in his note book. Evidence recorded shows that Lasantha Wickrematunge carried his note book at all times.

SI Sugathapala who visited the scene of crime collected the note book and made extensive notes in the IB and entered the Note Book as evidence in the Police Records. Supt of Police Adikarai in charge of Mt Lavinia Division informed his DIG P Nanayakkara who inturn informed the then Inspector General of Police Jayantha Wickramaratne of this evidence. Both SI Sugathapala and SP Adikari were summoned by DIG Nanayakkara who ordered a cover up of this evidence by altering the notes and
confiscating the vital Note Book. The Note Book ended up with the former IGP Wickramaratne.

SP Adikarai and SI Sugathapala are in remand for tampering with evidence. They are to make statements before a Magistrate. Former IGP Wickramaratne has filed papers for anticipatory bail. Sleuths investigating are questioning those officers as to what/who provoked them to cover up and was there any evidence or prior knowledge of who was behind the murder to go to such extent.

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Latest comments

  • 23
    5

    Nine years have passed and so many man hours and money wasted. Even children born after his death have a general idea of who ordered the hit.
    These are Sinhala Baudha War Hero’s that carried out a mission given to them. So why waste more money and time knowing nothing is going to come out of it.

    • 21
      1

      Let FM Sarath Fonseka have GO at these high-ranking criminals. I heard he is already appointed by PM. Will be your LITMUS TEST, FM Fonny! Please relieve the nation from this agony. Give LW & his family closure. Cheers!

      • 10
        5

        Ben Hurling

        “Let FM Sarath Fonseka have GO at these high-ranking criminals.”

        What is the matter with you Ben?
        Are you going bonkers?
        This lonely Field Marshall said he would drag the clan and cronies to the Galle face Green just before the 2010 presidential elections.
        Do you know why?

        I am still wondering why you are so fascinated by the these men who were and possibly are willing to use unconventional or illegal methods to punish their perceived enemies. I do not think Fonseka is capable of bringing peace and progress to this island. He is also a public racist, no better than his fellow alleged war criminal the National Hangman Dr Gota.

        • 8
          1

          Native,
          GOSL needs a DOBERMAN. FM Fonny can be that. We must make sure our institutions are strong enough to keep the DOBERMAN on it’s leash. We are dealing with die-hard, unscrupulous bastards. This is not a job for a choir boy. If you have any other candidates, willing to get his hands dirty, please be my guest. Cheers!

          • 5
            1

            Ben Hurling

            “If you have any other candidates, willing to get his hands dirty, please be my guest. Cheers!”

            You have already got your mind dirty before even hiring a cleaner.

            There may a handful of budding honest unblemished young ones who are ready and willing to take on the crooks provided the old crooks are prevented from nobbling them through various means.

            To start with advice Sirisena to go extended compulsory holiday say for a year. Then send all those senior officers and head of departments on gardening holiday. Before you send them away make sure all the files are secured in every department.

            Then ask me I will tell you where to start.
            You need to go after individual money trail of the suspects, their close associates, families, extended families, hangers on, their b***s carriers, employees, bank managers, ….. trace all the sales over millions, then track the buyers, ……………………….. You will have enough work for next twenty years.

            By the way remand all those suspects without bail.

      • 3
        11

        Are you living in LaLa Land or smoking Kerala Ganja bro?

        BEN HURLING. Fonny is very much complicit in these. He is now trying to frame Gota only. Ask Keith. The Army hit squads were working for Fonny. Sheesh.

        • 11
          1

          Thangamma,
          We need bad guys sometimes to do bad things to very bad people.
          Cheers!

          • 4
            1

            Ben Hurling

            “We need bad guys sometimes to do bad things to very bad people.”

            Then there will be no one left to deal with bad guys.

          • 0
            0

            As in the war?

        • 4
          2

          So your certain that there was a army hit squad that went around killing Journalists, Politicians and Political Opponents.
          If this was not a rouge element then its not just the Defense Sec. but the Commander-In-Chief should be held accountable.

      • 7
        0

        Yes, that is also my wish.
        SF is the only person to go radically against all the high criminals who looted the state assets and today made human shields around them to defend themselves.
        Bulath eating majority would not sense it not knowing the bit properly.

    • 9
      1

      RE: New Evidence In Lasantha Murder

      It is all Mahinda Rajapaksa and cronies culture, with Gota behind it, because of the MIG fraud.

      • 7
        0

        Amarasiri, there had been one former army man committed suicide leaving a hand written letter to have murdered Lasantha ? Was that a rumour or just an another joke being played by Rajapakshe ballige puthas to mislead the punnakku dominated lanken folks?

        • 3
          0

          Buramphisincho,

          “Was that a rumour or just an another joke being played by Rajapakshe ballige puthas to mislead the punnakku dominated lanken folks?”

          May be a distraction, but with “the punnakku dominated lanken folks”, with average IQ 79, you never know.

      • 1
        0

        RE: New Evidence In Lasantha Murder,
        /
        Expect no resolution and relief for the victims. There is a “New Law and Order Minister”

        News on new cabinet reshuffle

        “It is widely held that Ratnayaka was anyway doing Wickremesinghe’s bidding when he, Ratnayaka, was Minister of Law and Order, and that it was Wickremesinghe who was responsible for the foot-dragging on the enforcement of the law in several high-profile cases including that of Gotabaya Rajapaksa.”

  • 52
    2

    It would be great sample case for all murders if the truth come out ..
    Sri Lankan judiciary should be free of all political influence..

    • 7
      16

      Sinhalese

      Lets hear news about some regrouped LTTE activities through out the island and ISIS training camps in the East. Sambanthan is planning to launch his final assault on the parliament and capture the entire country.

      • 5
        1

        The famous Sinhala saying Koheda Yanne Malle Pol always deviating from the subject.

    • 4
      33

      Ranil Wicremasinghe said at the Parliment Sarath Fonseka behind this murder. Lasantha & Eknaligoda traitors of Sri Lanka. They funded by LTTE and this is well known secret also. Killing really not enough for these traitors, after killing should cut their bodies and hang four corners of the Sri Lanka

      • 13
        1

        Dear Asoka,

        Obviously you are not a Buddhist.

        May the blessings of the triple gem be with you urgently, as you need it badly.

      • 6
        1

        Is your other name Gotabhaya?

  • 40
    2

    Murder most foul, with knowledge of Head of State, by the ‘protectors’ of the nation, even now pampered with the largest chunk of each annual budget.

    • 30
      2

      justice – “Oluwatathey waduney” = Who said to whom and when, where and why? Maybe the M.P. for Kurunegala has the answer!

    • 11
      1

      Even I know who ordered the killing, as did the victim. Is the culprit still at liberty? There are so many reasons he should not be.

      • 2
        4

        Yes, rather funnily Fonny is a MINISTER no?

        Do you recall a journalist who was abducted and sodomized. There was a close cabal between Funny and Gotts

  • 28
    1

    Interesting! Both in the Thajudeen and Lasantha cases the Police are covering up. If Army intelligence were involved and Police were erasing the tracks then who is immediately above the Police and the Army at that time controlling the state of affairs? However, as per this news item if Lasantha gave so many calls before his murder why was the opportunity given for him to make the calls by the murderers? If calls were indeed made to Malik Samarawickrama and Killy Maharaja, were their statements recorded on this matter? If not why?

    • 13
      1

      Who was in overall charge of the country as a whole, and Commander in Chief of the entire Security Forces on 8th.January 2009?
      Screw his balls and he will squeal the whole truth.

      • 3
        0

        Uthungan

        “Screw his balls and he will squeal the whole truth.”

        What if he enjoyed and asked for more?
        By the way you can hire trained and experienced personnel from armed forces pool serving as well as retired men.

      • 0
        6

        Uthungan, should you screw the commander-in-chief’s ball for the Lasantha case or actually for the elimination of your Sun God, Prabha? I think you honestly want to touch his balls for the lasantha case! :-p

        • 4
          0

          max

          I thought the lonely Field Marshall screwed VP’s a**e single handedly. If true you are as usual talking bull aren’t you? Or was it Dr Gota who screwed VP?

        • 1
          0

          Max
          Prabha was the Sun God for your CIC in the Presidential election 2005. He would have not only touched Sun God’s balls but even more than that. Why not ask him?

      • 0
        0

        But he is in the UNP Cabinet as a minister now.

    • 6
      0

      Good Sense

      Come on these things happen. Happen all the time. Both murders you mentioned were high profile cases whose popularity makes these cases on news head line all the time.

      What happens to others who have no access to media whose relatives suffer silently. There had been hundreds of thousands of cases in 1971, between 1987 and 1990, and over 30 years which met with stonewalling on the part of the state institutions and different shades of governments since 1971.

      The state cannot and should not be allowed to bury its moral and legal responsibilities under pretext of terrorism.

      Here in this forum we have a wide ranging idea of justice. Well until the people decide what the state could and could not do or should and should not do and how much freedom should be given to the crooks in the parliament to get away with murder we will continue to see /hear cases such as the above popping up all the time.

      Murder and mass murders are being justified on racial grounds, parochially motivated reasons, recently developed legal concept; political crooks and war criminals cannot be charged because they are war heroes according to arbitrary admonishment of the president, it is also the case how long one can sustain media interest on murder cases, ………………….

      Its foolish for the people of morally bankrupt country to acquire a taste for luxuries, justice, accountability, transparency ……………..

    • 1
      3

      lasanatha
      ekaneligoda nothing
      who killed all patriotic UNP LEADERS
      GAMINI, LALITH ATHULATHMUDALI ,RANJAN WIJERATNE, GENERAL JANAKA, PERERA GENERAL LUCKY ALGAMA
      who in UNP benefitted from ELIMINATING SENIOR Leadership of UNP

  • 23
    1

    Isn’t this “Anticipatory Bail” application a “JOKE”? Every time a high profiled suspect is to be questioned and record a statement, such person go before the court and file this “Anticipatory Bail” application. We have already seen this in the case of the “Thajudeen” murder case where the then Chief Judiciary Medical Officer, Dr. Samarasekera, who was found to have mislead that whole investigation still enjoying his freedom arrest. Then comes GOTA who is accused in a case of his fathers “Memorial” construction still debating through courts relying on that “Anticipatory Bail”. Now we hear of ex IGP in the case of Lasantha Wickramatunga. Shouldn’t this be completely taken out of the Statutes? In this Lasantha’s murder, the Investigators have found and confirmed that the relevant entries in the Police Record book have been REMOVED and NEW PAGES have been inserted. The photo copies of the REMOVED pages have been found. Who ORDERED that action to be taken have been established through responsible Police Officials statements. How and Where the NOTE BOOK of Lasantha has been sent to also established. Then what more. Why courts have to “Entertain” these “Anticipatory Bail Applications”. Just DISMISS such applications and give the space for FREE FLOW of Administering the Justice System. No wonder we OVERDO in our SHOW of respect and slavery for “Democracy” and mess up the whole of the Justice System, in that, forgetting completely that “Delayed Justice is Denied Justice”. That is how we see Justice “DENIED” to very many VICTIMS.

  • 35
    2

    Sri Lankans are simply not fit to be anything-President ,Hon PM, IGP ,Policeman, soldier, administrator, teacher,nurse, doctor-any office they get into they will corrupt and demean .

    Their culture and character makes them only good three wheel drivers, brokers and pimps.

    • 5
      1

      They are very good in Aappa Diplomacy too. How many times Britain, EU, UNHRC, UNSG, America and India are cheated. Still PM modi waiting to negotiate ETCA with Ranil. China is the only knows to deal with them.

      GG started 1930 to negotiate. Sampanthar is still negotiating.

    • 2
      1

      Totally agree with you, Kolla.

    • 1
      0

      .. and arch terrorists

  • 6
    1

    Doesn’t this cry out for international involvement if justice is to be served in Sri Lanka?

  • 1
    1

    Because of the War Against Terrorists, govt need some removals.. Probably govt di dnot do it properly.

    • 2
      0

      Jim the Dimwit:
      They sure did not do it proper leaving A’holes like you disgrace the Sinhala race.
      Were you born retarded or did you train yourself that way?

      • 3
        0

        Burt can we open the scull of this fool Jimbo Shitty and see whether it is filled with Rajapaksa feces?

        • 1
          0

          Tamil from the north

          “Burt can we open the scull of this fool Jimbo Shitty and see whether it is filled with Rajapaksa feces?”

          You mean how the National hangman’s merry men did to VP the psychopath just after chopping open his skull.

  • 8
    0

    Arrest the former IGP for taking the notebook.Ask him to give it back or face 20 years in prison.

  • 9
    0

    Lasantha’s and Thajudeen’s cases are good opportunities for our Legal System and Judiciary to re-establish the good name they had years ago. Recent past with total politicizing of the judiciary things have gone the wrong way. Lets see if the Judiciary at least now will give the correct judgments.

  • 5
    0

    It is obvious that a powerful person of the previous government had been behind this murder.
    1. Why JMO issued a false report ? JMO who examined the body of Lasantha was a well qualified senior doctor. It is strange why he was unable to distinguish the difference between shooting and stabing. It is clear that some has threatened him to give a false report. Has he received any personal benifit by giving a false report? Had lasantha been an enimy of JMO?

    2. Why did police officers fabricate false evidence? There is no reason to hide true evidence unless they were forced to do so.

    2.

    • 1
      0

      The answers to those questions you have posed is obviously simple especially if you consider who had benefitted by those vile deeds at different times and different stages in the history of SL.
      Many were murdered like PM SWRD.,Mayor Alfred Thuraiappah,Thiyarajah, the Principal of St. John’s Jaffna,Lakshman K,adirgamar,Raviraj,Ketheeswaran,Maheswaran, GaminiDissanayake, Lalith Athulatmudali,President Premadasa, etc.,etc.
      This process will perhaps go on unhappily but indefinitely in the Island as long greed for power,wealth persist until people decide to climb out of the debilitating cess pit of ignorance racial and religious quagmire.

  • 3
    3

    “Who is Lasantha?………………………………Anybody can kill him……………….”

    • 2
      0

      “Who is Lasantha?………………………………Anybody can kill him……………….” This is what GR said at the BBC interview

  • 7
    0

    THERE IS APPARENTLY ABUNDANCE OF OF EVIDENCE AGAINST THE PERPETRATORS ACCORDING TO REVELATIONS IN THE MEDIA FROM TIME TO TIME. HENCE, PEOPLE WONDER WHAT IS THE DELAY IN ARRESTING THE PLANNERS AND PLOTTERS BEHIND THE DASTARDLY “MURDER”!

  • 3
    0

    Action after the election defeat!!!!!

    Better late than never to get those Rajapakse rogues.

  • 4
    0

    Kolla, you are perfectly correct.

    Srilankans are a total disgrace to the whole mankind. Without the Srilankans the world would be a much better

  • 6
    0

    We should not catch them and jail them as they will come out of jail in 10 years. As it is the killers are living among us and spending sleepless nights dying a million times as horrendous thoughts overcome them seeing in their dreams the noose closing in on them. Anticipatory bail application is evidence of the magnitude of the suffering, not to mention the stress strain tumult and trauma of the kith and kin. Perpetrators of this crime should suffer till they die. I can cry for 100 years for Lasantha the amiable personality who was the chief architect of investigative journalism.

  • 3
    0

    In other news: Morons in uniform endangering civilians for a quick buck from the underworld.

    “According to Government Senior Assistant Analyst W. A. Roshan Fernando the explosion that occurred in a private bus early on Wednesday (21) in Kahagolla Diyathalawa was a result of a live hand grenade going off, Bandarawela SP Sudath Masinha said.
    Police learnt that the grenade had been in the possession of a Sergeant Major from the Kahagolla army camp which had gone off after it fell onto the floor of the bus when he tried to take it out of his pocket where he had hidden it.”

  • 1
    0

    It is not clear to me what the ‘new evidence’ is.

  • 3
    7

    Ranil Wicremasinghe said at the Parliment Sarath Fonseka behind this murder. Lasantha & Eknaligoda traitors of Sri Lanka. They funded by LTTE and this is well known secret also. Killing really not enough for these traitors, after killing should cut their bodies and hang four corners of the Sri Lanka

  • 2
    0

    I MA READY TO GIVE EVIDENCE IN ANY COURTS.

  • 5
    1

    PM pointed finger at Sarath Fonseka for the murder of Lasantha. Rumor is that Fonseka could be the Minister of Law and Order in the new cabinet. What a joke!

  • 11
    1

    Agreed with Kolla or Gal Kolla?

    Lasantha’s mistress’s/wife’s – mother got a Stroke from the stress of all this.
    Good old Percy boy, Gota, Yoshitter all a bunch of murders…. imagine a father having a son that murders people. Best of all people love them, vote for them…. why?

    Ranil protects Percy boy & vice versa. In fact all of them protect Percy boy!
    Ranil the chronic loser has made himself immune from justice & party leadership struggles by getting his MPs to sign resignation letters like what his uncle JR did. He could easily go to jail for Batalanda murders, let alone looting the central bank!

    Right now with a incompetent uneducated pimp as President & a bunch of corrupt left handers in the government, with a few families that are immune from justice Sri Lanka is on a jolly rock and roll.

    No wonder Mr Trump calls us shithole countries.
    Imagine Ivanka bumping off Michael Jordan? Ha ha got you

    All the rich & powerful go to court, poor buggers land up hard up in jail, just like America.
    I luv this land, Sri Lanka meaning ‘ holy land’ of murders.. goons & pimps.

  • 1
    0

    Kudos to Lankawe, congrats you got the 91st place stacked along with Guyana,Timor,Bosnia in Transparency/corruption index which also takes into account of journalist murdered when tried to expose the facts, But Lanka will stand out because the Chief him self gives the contracts to murder , kidnap, torture and what not, Remember the the journalist who were kidnap in a white van and were on the way to the torture chamber and let go when a foreign diplomat intervened and made a call to the chief????This is Lankawe style, Also viewers beware of the paid people in social media who are on paid roll to spread fake news propaganda, What is true in U.S.A and lot of other countries have been already in play in Lanka where are people within and outside of country are paid to plant fake news,do campaign, malign innocent people, character assassinate when confronted and buy or manipulate election outcome.Of course no one can out do Lankans in this profession.

  • 2
    1

    Funny Fonny must be worried. Also Keith is coming back to start a paper. Fonny will definitely be worried. We all know , don’t we?

  • 0
    0

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  • 0
    0

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    0

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    0

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  • 1
    1

    Attack, sodomy and rape assault of a certain top journalist will never be investigated.
    The Lasantha Assassination has a UNP cabinet minister who stands accused.

    • 2
      0

      Thangamma:

      I agree that this case will never see justice but not for the reasons you have mentioned.

      From Jbsj page:
      “Sunday Leader”Editor Lasantha Wickrematunga was Assassinated By Military Intelligence Operatives: Police Top Brass Suppressed and Destroyed Evidence Incriminating Army; Details Emerge Via Disclosures made By Ex DIG and EX SSP.”

      “The court has already been told that the military intelligence was involved in the killing and that the then head of military intelligence Kapila Hendavitharana was heading a killer squad and he reported directly to then defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.”

      • 1
        1

        Burt, who do you think ordered the abduction, sodomy and assault on a top journalist who exposed Fonny two weeks prior to the assault? He fled the nation and is in psychiatric care since then, He used to write to the Nation and had a detailed expose’s on how Fonny awarded himself medals he had no right to get and how he violated military honour code. Why are you chaps so eager to exonerate Fonny? RW said Fonny got Lasantha killed too and so did John Viagra Ameretunge of the top top UNP. So shouldn’t Fonny be questioned?

        • 0
          0

          Who I think does not matter when people like Mervin Silva, Sarath Fonseka have stated their opinion and the CID investigation is confirming. Why not act on it.

          Who was powerful enough at the time of the murder to influence the JMO, IGP, SP, ASP and get the assassins to safety without getting caught from a well protected area. Same story with Kadirgama now that we know LTTE did not do most of the things the govt said they did.

  • 1
    1

    Dr Ranil declared in the pre Yahapalana Parliament that the former Army Commander ,General Ponny killed this Journalist.
    And it is in Hansard.
    The same Dr Ranil hand picked the ex General under Yahapalanaya and promoted him to the post of Field Marshall . and rewarded him with a Senior Minister Gig in the Yahapalana Cabinet.
    The loyal followers of this deceased Journalist seem to have missed this reward which Dr Ranil awarded to the the accused.
    The Journalist apparently worked overtime to investigate the MIGs to give Dr Ranil the upper hand to protect the LTTE , when General Ponny publicly declared that he was going to kill 1000 Tigers a month.,
    And did not want to leave any un finished business after he retired.
    It is amazing how things have changed.
    Dr Ranil has always been a friend of the LTTE and the Journalist .
    But Dr Ranil to go to bed with the ex General is mind boggling.
    I know the ex General volunteered to give evidence to the UN against his own troops.
    We know Dr Ranil hand picked the current Police Commission.
    We also know Dr Ranil created the UNP FCID.
    And appointed a very efficient UNP spokesperson for the Police.
    Who in fact directly blamed the Srilankan Army of placing a Hand Grenade in a Bus carrying their own in Diyatalava.
    But is that a good enough reason to clear the ex General of an alleged Killing?..

    • 1
      0

      This country, like many others, is so corrupt. This “scratch my back, and I will scratch yours”, mentally is so obvious between the previous and present regimes.

      What these scoundrels did to this man is disgusting. We know very well who tried to silence, ban, and censor, the media, and we also know that this crime was carried out by assassins, ordered by the top.
      Then it was disgusting to hear that horrible voice say “who’s Lasantha?”as if Lasantha was of no consequence.

      Are our law enforcement and CID officers incapable, and unable, to find out who brutally killed Lasantha, and Thajudeen? Or are they afraid?

      Poor Lasantha’s family have never got justice, nor closure.

    • 2
      0

      KASmaalam K A Sumanasekere

      “Dr Ranil declared in the pre Yahapalana Parliament that the former Army Commander ,General Ponny killed this Journalist.”

      Just forget the lonely Field Marshal another public racist Fonseka, Dr Ranil and Lasantha for a second, do you think the former national hangman Dr Gota (DSc) had no hand in killing other journalists and your other dear leader VP?

      You don’t have to respond if you are uncomfortable with my comment.

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