Lalith Athulathmudali
Lalith William Samarasekera Athulathmudali, PC (; 26 November 1936 – 23 April 1993), known as Lalith Athulathmudali, was a Sri Lankan statesman. He was a prominent member of the United National Party, who served as Minister of Trade and Sh ...
, the former Cabinet Minister of Trade, National Security, Agriculture, Education and Deputy Minister of Defence of
Sri Lanka was killed at 8:10 p.m.
Sri Lanka Time
Sri Lanka Standard Time (SLST) ( si, ශ්රී ලංකාවේ සම්මත වේලාව , Shri Lankavay Sammatha Velava, ta, இலங்கை நியம நேரம்) is the time zone for Sri Lanka. It is 5 hours and 3 ...
(2.10 p.m.
UTC) on 23 April 1993 in
Kirulapana.
Athulathmudali was fatally shot while addressing a gathering, approximately 4 weeks ahead of the Provincial Council elections for the
Western Province
Western Province or West Province may refer to:
* Western Province, Cameroon
*Western Province, Rwanda
*Western Province (Kenya)
*Western Province (Papua New Guinea)
*Western Province (Solomon Islands)
*Western Province, Sri Lanka
*Western Provin ...
, May 1993.
The investigation carried out by
Sri Lanka Police and
Scotland Yard separately concluded that the assassination was carried out by a
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nativ ...
youth named Appiah Balakrishnan ''alias'' Ragunathan, who was affiliated to
LTTE. However these findings were widely disputed by people due to the political context of that time. In 1995,
President
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*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
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* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
appointed a presidential commission to probe the Athulathmudali assassination, which had been an election promise of her
1994 presidential election campaign. The final commission report submitted on October 7, 1997, pointed the finger at former
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
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* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
Ranasinghe Premadasa (1988–93) and security force personnel who were close to him as directly responsible for the killing of Athulathmudali.
Subsequently, a few security force members and underworld figures were arrested. They were eventually charged with conspiracy, aiding and abetting to commit murder. Three of the accused were killed during prosecution, raising further questions about the assassination. The Lalith Athulathmudali case remains the most controversial political assassination in recent Sri Lankan history.
Background
Tension with Ranasinghe Premadasa
Lalith Athulathmudali had been one of the most prominent and powerful ministers in
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
J.R. Jayewardene’s government during 1977-88. Athulathmudali,
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
Ranasinghe Premadasa and minister of Mahaweli Development
Gamini Dissanayake
Dissanayake Mudiyanse Ralahamilage Lionel Gamini Dissanayake, PC (known as Gamini Dissanayake; si, ලයනල් ගාමිණි දිසානායක, ta, காமினி திஸாநாயக்க; 20 March 1942 – 24 Octob ...
were considered to be the closest contenders for the
1988 Sri Lankan presidential election.
Prime Minister Ranasinghe Premadasa was nominated in the end. After the election victory of President Premadasa, Athulathmudali and Dissanayake were considered as the closest contenders to the post of Prime Minister. But circumventing both of them, Premadasa appointed
D.B. Wijethunga as the Prime Minister. In 1989, Premadasa appointed his closest associate Sirisena Cooray to the post of national organizer of
UNP overlooking Lalith Athulathmudali. Similarly, Athulathmudali and Dissanayake were deprived of a series of important posts within government and the party. These acts caused a great tension between Premadasa fraction and the Athulathmudali fraction of the party. The disappearance of dramatist Luxman Perera – who was a close ally of Athulathmudali, also caused the rift to intensify.
Impeachment motion
This resulted in Athulathmudali fraction bringing an
impeachment motion against President Premadasa in 1991.
The motion included 24 cases of alleged abuses of power, including illegal land deals and failing to consult the cabinet (thus violating the
constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
When these princ ...
).
Although the
speaker of the parliament rejected the motion in October 1991, it put the Premadasa government in grave danger. Subsequently, Athulathmudali and Dissanayake resigned from their ministerial posts. They and their allies were expelled from the party.
Establishment of Democratic United National Front
They formed a separate political party known as
Democratic United National Front
The Democratic United National Front ( si, ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදී එක්සත් ජාතික පෙරමුණ, pronounced ''Prajathanthrvadi Eksath Jathika Peramuna'', ta, ஜனநாயக ஐக்க ...
(DUNF) in November 28, 1991. Athulathmudali was elected as its leader. Four times during 1991-92, Athulathmudali and his supporters were physically attacked allegedly by thugs or supporters of the president. These incidents occurred on November 2, 1991, at Pannala, April 23, 1992, at Madapatha, August 7, 1992, at Fort railway station and August 29, 1992, at
Dehiwala
Dehiwala is a suburban area in Colombo, Sri Lanka. It lies within the administrative boundaries of Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia Municipal Council. It is known for the zoo which houses thousands of animals and hundreds of species.
2019 Easter Sunday a ...
.
On March 16, 1993, the government dissolved the seven provincial councils and announced the elections dates due to be on May 17, 1993. Athulathmudali handed over his papers to contest, seeking the chief ministership of the Western Province Council on the DUNF ticket.
The assassination
On April 23, 1993, Athulathmudali was scheduled to address meetings held at
Borella, Aluthkade and Kirulapana. He finished addressing two other meetings and arrived at Kirulapana at 8:00 p.m. There were about 1,000 people present. As it was raining, people moved closer to the stage, some even climbing under it. Suddenly, the
assassin
Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have a ...
came near Athulathmudali, pulled out a gun and shot him three times.
At this moment, a bodyguard of Athulathmudali named Thilak Shantha fired at the assassin and hit him on the right side of his
abdomen
The abdomen (colloquially called the belly, tummy, midriff, tucky or stomach) is the part of the body between the thorax (chest) and pelvis, in humans and in other vertebrates. The abdomen is the front part of the abdominal segment of the to ...
. The assassin also shot at the bodyguard and ran away. Athulathmudali was taken to the hospital but succumbed to his wounds around 8:50 p.m.
The police came to the crime scene and cordoned the area. Subsequent search operations found nothing. On the following morning (April 24), the police found a slain body some 200m from the stage where Athulathmudali had been shot. Police found an
automatic 9mm pistol with two magazines and several rounds of live ammunition, empty cartridge cases, a hand grenade, a national identity card and a little money. The Colombo Judicial Medical Officer,
Dr. L.B. De Alwis, held a postmortem and recorded the cause of the death of Athulathmudali as fatal firearm wounds to the liver, heart and lungs. He identified the cause of the death of the slain Tamil youth, Appiah Balakrishnan ''alias'' Ragunathan, as cyanide poisoning. There was a non-fatal wound found on his lower back (not on the right abdomen as described by the bodyguard Thilak Shantha).
Police investigation
Police investigators immediately pointed their fingers at LTTE,
a
separatist terrorist organisation
A number of national governments and two international organizations have created lists of organizations that they designate as terrorist. The following list of designated terrorist groups lists groups designated as terrorist by current and fo ...
which had been waging a war against the state since 1983. When Athulathmudali had been the minister of defense in the J.R. Jayawardene government, he had taken stern action against the group, sparking their anger towards him. LTTE had killed a number of parliamentarians and local body members during the period, so the police's point of view had a certain credibility. The police asserted that Ragunathan, whose body had appeared the next morning, was the gunman who had killed Athulathmudali. The fact that the Judicial Medical Officer
Dr. Lalantha de Alwis, who conducted the autopsy on the body, had testified that the body smelled of
potassium cyanide (which LTTEers had used over the years to commit suicide) and that he found pieces of glass in the mouth of the body, stood as strong evidence to support the police. Police determined that the youth known as Ragunathan was a LTTE activist. According to their view, LTTE had sent Ragunathan to kill Athulathmudali, and Ragunathan then bit his suicide capsule to evade capture, since he had been shot by the bodyguard.
Scotland Yard investigation
President Ranasinghe Premadasa invited a team of
Scotland Yard detectives and
pathologists
A list of people notable in the field of pathology.
A
* John Abercrombie, Scottish physician, neuropathologist and philosopher.
* Maude Abbott (1869–1940), Canadian pathologist, one of the earliest women graduated in medicine, expert in co ...
to further investigate the assassination.
They arrived in the country on April 26. During their course of investigation, on May 1, 1993, President Premadasa was killed by a suicide bombing carried out by the LTTE.
Scotland Yard reported to the then appointed
D.B. Wijethunge government that they had found a minute trace of cyanide in Ragunathan's blood sample which they had taken at a second postmortem of the youth. Concluding their investigation, detective superintendent Alec Edwards of the Investigation and Crime Branch of New Scotland Yard forwarded an undated report to the government.
The findings of Scotland Yard
The report included the following findings:
*The person now known to be Ragunathan, ''alias'' Appaiah Balakrishnan, shot and killed Athulathmudali and was later found dead at scene 2.
*Seriously injured and fearing imminent capture, he undoubtedly took his life by way of cyanide poisoning.
*There was no evidence, direct or circumstantial, to support the allegation that this tragedy was orchestrated by or in any way linked to the Sri Lankan Government, UNP members or other official agencies including the police.
*An analytical study of LTTE's modus operandi showed that this act was in total concert with their current subversive activities.
Controversy
The circumstances regarding the death of Athulathmudali remained intensely controversial in the social and political arenas. The following facts made the official version of the assassination suspicious.
*It was reported that Rukman de Silva, a
Senior Superintendent of Police, had instructed his officers not to provide police protection to the opposition political parties at their public meetings during the provincial election.
*On April 23, the
Inspector of Police, Ranagala, who was the
OIC of Kirulapone, sent two police officers to tape record the speeches made at the DUNF meeting.
*A police search found nothing on the night of the assassination. It was only on the following morning that Kirulapana police found the dead body of Ragunathan just 200m from the stage.
*For the second postmortem done by Dr. R.T. Shepherd on Ragunathan's body, no one had taken permission from the magistrate, which was absolutely necessary under the circumstances.
*It was found that Ragunathan had come to Colombo to go abroad. He was alone. There was no evidence to link him to the LTTE.
Those pieces of evidence, combined with the political friction between Athulathmudali and President Premadasa, made many independent investigators suspicious about an involvement of the president with this assassination. However, Premadasa repeatedly pleaded his innocence. He also made the favourite statement, "Assassinate me if you wish, but don't assassinate my character, which I have cherished from my childhood," regarding Athulathmudali's murder.
Presidential commission on Athulathmudali assassination
In 1994, Chandrika Kumarathunga's
People's Alliance government came into power, defeating the 17 year UNP rule. One of the major election promises of her
1994 presidential election campaign was to inquire the unaccounted disappearances and assassinations during UNP's rule. Thus in 1995, she appointed a 3-person presidential commission to probe the death of Athulathmudali. It was composed of
justice
Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...
Tissa Bandaranayake, justice Padmasiri Gunasekera and judge of the High Court, Nimal Gamini Amaratunge. Although the commission was due to submit report in 3 months time, it took more than 2 years to complete the investigation. Commission submitted its final report on October 7, 1997.
The commission found that the firearm wound on Ragunathan was caused by a shot fired at a very close range with a doctored and tampered 9 mm cartridge. For this to have happened he should’ve been in someone's
captivity when he was shot.
This is because the bodyguard had shot the killer at a distance greater than that. Ragunathan had his wound on his lower back, not on the right side of the abdomen.
The commission also concluded that evidence gathered suggests that cyanide was administered to him forcibly, not that he bit the
cyanide capsule himself. It also ruled out LTTE from the assassination plot.
Commission also pointed out that Ragunathan was also killed by the gang which had killed Athulathmudali.
The persons implicated by the commission
It implicated following people for the dual murder:
*Arambawalage Don Ranjith Upali de Silva ''alias'' Soththi Upali – he was implicated on murdering victim number 2, Appiah Balakrishnan ''alias'' Ragunathan. Soththi Upali was assumed to be the god father of the Colombo underworld during that time. He had been said to have close political links, most importantly B. Sirisena Cooray, the minister of housing and construction at that time. Upali served as a reserve sub inspector at one time. He was later included in the UNP executive body by President Premadasa.
*Uswatte Liyanage Senivaratne - a provincial councilor of the UNP for the Western Province. He was accused of the offences of unlawful assault, voluntarily causing hurt while being armed with deadly weapons to wit; pistol, iron rods, clubs etc. and wrongful restraint,
criminal intimidation
Intimidation is to "make timid or make fearful"; or to induce fear. This includes intentional behaviors of forcing another person to experience general discomfort such as humiliation, embarrassment, inferiority, limited freedom, etc and the victi ...
, offences punishable under the Penal Code in respect of the Fort Railway Station incident on August 7, 1992, and conspiracy to kill Lalith W. Athulathmudali on April 23, 1993.
*Janaka Priyanka Jayamanna ''alias'' Wellampitiye Sudumahattaya – he was identified as the assassin of Lalith Athulathmudali.
*Wathudula Bandulage Somaratne ''alias'' Konda Some – another prominent underworld figure.
*K. Nandasiri Karunatilake ''alias'' Nandana – a mobster and a close associate of Soththi Upali.
*Bulathsinhalage Srisena Cooray - the minister of Housing and Construction of the Premadasa government. He was considered as the right-hand man of President Ranasinghe Premadasa.
*Bulathsinhalage Ajith Coorey - the son of Srisena Cooray.
Negligence/involvement of police
The commission report also added that the police has contributed to the assassination by failing to give adequate security to the meeting, disregard of vital evidence, not submitting a complete report to the magistrate and avoiding questioning witnesses on relevant matters. Report also implicated
ASP Lugoda,
IP Dharmawardene,
SI Sunil Shantha and
IP Ekhanayake on falsification and tampering of evidence and fraudulent conduct. Senivaratne, Gunaratne, Dharmawardene, Basil, Jayasinghe, Devasundara, Aabdeen, Nilaabdeen, Deepthi Wijewickrema and other CDB officers were accused of conducting an unsatisfactory probe on Ragunathan's death. Galgamuwa of the
Wellawatte
Wellawatta is a neighbourhood of Colombo, Sri Lanka. It lies immediately south of Bambalapitiya and is classified as zone 6 within the Colombo Municipal region. The town begins at the old Dutch canal just before the Savoy Cinema and extends so ...
police is seen showing weapons to
underworld
The underworld, also known as the netherworld or hell, is the supernatural world of the dead in various religious traditions and myths, located below the world of the living. Chthonic is the technical adjective for things of the underwor ...
gangsters at the police station. Adhikari of the Borella police had given protection to criminals, particularly to Soththi Upali, whom he addressed as "chief". Devasundara and Ilabdeen visited Ragunathan, who was held in captivity in Gothami Road. The report in its last paragraphs pointed out finger towards President Premadasa for the assassination of Lalith Athulathmudali.
Based on the commission report, on September 8, 1998, Devasundara, Inspector of Police in charge of the local unit of the Terrorism Investigation Department (TID) was arrested in
Anuradhapura
Anuradhapura ( si, අනුරාධපුරය, translit=Anurādhapuraya; ta, அனுராதபுரம், translit=Aṉurātapuram) is a major city located in north central plain of Sri Lanka. It is the capital city of North Central ...
. Later Soththi Upali, Malwatte Some, U.L. Seneviratne, B.G. Devasurendra and A. Abdeen were arrested and charged with conspiracy, aiding and abetting to commit murder and unlawful detention of Ragunathan. B. Sirisena Cooray was also arrested later and released.
He continues to deny their involvement of the assassination until now.
Subsequently, three of the chief suspects, Arambawalage Don Ranjith Upali de Silva ''alias'' Soththi Upali, Janaka Priyanka Jayamanna ''alias'' Wellampitiye Sudumahattaya and K. Nandasiri Karunatilake ''alias'' Nandana were assassinated.
Circumstances regarding Soththi Upali’s death
Soththi Upali was shot dead on December 17, 1998, while returning home from the magistrate courts in Colombo, where he has been charged in connection with the assassination.
It was reported that two vehicles have followed the bus in which Upali was traveling from Colombo to Piliyandala. As soon as he got down at Bokundara, he was shot and then dragged into one of the vehicles and taken to a place about 4 km from Bokundara, shot again and dropped.
Prior to that, in late February 1998 at Borella, Nandana was killed at the presence of Upali. But he had luckily got escaped. A rival underworld gang led by Dhammika Amarasinghe, the brother of Upali's archrival Chinthaka Amarasinghe – who was killed by Upali, a few years earlier – was said to be responsible for these assassinations.
Thilak Shantha’s confession
When those who were implicated by the presidential commission were tried in court, it was revealed that the assassin named by the commission, Wellampitye Sudumahattaya had no wounds on the right side of his abdomen, as earlier revealed by Lalith Athulathmudali's bodyguard Thilak Shantha. Thus Shantha was recalled to the court to question him on the issue. There he confessed that he had deliberately lied to the commission and the early investigators. He said the truth was that he shot at the assassin, but the bullet never hit the assassin.
He said he lied to the commission and to the police at the instance of a President's Counsel who was watching the interests of Athulathmudali's family. Later Shantha was charged as an accomplice to the murder.
Aftermath
The assassin of Lalith Athulathmudali, as implicated by commission, Janaka Priyankara Jayamanne ''alias'' Wellampitiye Sudu Mahattaya also was assassinated by rival underworld gangs at his
Kolonnawa
Kolonnawa ( si, කොලොන්නාව, ta, கொலன்னாவ) is a town located on the eastern boundary of Colombo District, Western Province of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā ...
home on April 30, 2000. His wife also died in this shooting. Chandrika Kumarathunga's government was accused of giving asylum to the gangs led by Dhammika Amarasinghe who was responsible for these murders.
In 2005, a suspect was apprehended by police in relation to Soththi Upali's murder. Interrogations revealed that he had been a body guard of the former Samurdi Minister
S. B. Dissanayake who had been a powerful minister of Chandrika Kumarathunga's government.
See also
*
Lalith Athulathmudali
Lalith William Samarasekera Athulathmudali, PC (; 26 November 1936 – 23 April 1993), known as Lalith Athulathmudali, was a Sri Lankan statesman. He was a prominent member of the United National Party, who served as Minister of Trade and Sh ...
References
External links
Chapter 58: Premadasa indicted
{{coord missing, Sri Lanka
Politics of Sri Lanka
Athulathmudali, Lalith
April 1993 events in Asia
1993 murders in Sri Lanka