Minister of Mass Media and Health Nalin de Jayatissa says that regardless of the reason that man or a woman to join the underworld, the government is responsible for those actions, and therefore we will first implement the law against them and also counter to eliminate the causes that create such individuals. 

The Minister said that there is an analysis that the reason why some people in this society resort to underworld activities is due to socio-economic problems, and that it has been three months since the new government took over to change this, and that these are problems that have been going on for decades. The ministries are ready to take firm decisions and solve these problems, and there is a process to solve these problems. He said that the search for solutions to the socio-economic crisis is also visible when we look at the budget.

He said this while answering two questions raised by journalist Shantha Wijesuriya of the Lanka Sky News website at a press conference held on 25 February to inform the Cabinet of Ministers of the Kirulapone Polhengoda Government Information Department.

The two questions raised by the journalist are as follows.

Like previous governments, although the NPP government arrests criminals it does not kill them. No government has the right to kill the criminals. We, as journalists, requested the government to bring the criminals before the law. However, the suspects arrested in Kotahena have been brutally murdered by the police just after a few days despite our requests. Now, instead of arresting the suspects and bring them to court, this government has started to kill them. The coffin in which Pragas Nirmanandan was buried was sealed after he was shot in the face by a bullet. 

When the relatives tried to take Nirmanandan’s body to his mother’s house, the police did not allow it. The body is kept in a funeral parlor. Is this the government’s democracy? Did the police shoot the two youths on the orders of the government? Isn’t the NPP government also following the practices of the previous capitalist governments?

We criticize politicians for being corrupt. At the same time the police are also corrupt. The police are involved in both the crimes that occurred recently. When we asked the acting police IGP about this, he said that the main reason why the police are victims of crime is poverty or not receiving a sufficient salary to live on. This applies to society as well. This problem cannot be solved by taking underworld criminals to show weapons and kill them.  I am afraid the NPP government has a program to eliminate the economic poverty that is related to the emergence of the underworld?

The Minister further commented and said:

We have focused the most on rural economic development and increasing economic productivity and ensuring the flow of money to the common people of the country. A long-term program to uplift their lives is underway. No matter what the reasons for joining the underworld, as a short-term program, we cannot allow it to be used to give the right to take someone’s life, steal, kill, extort money, or to rape someone. 

– Question –

The government is shooting and killing suspects under the pretext of bringing them to justice. Is the government aware that these killings are taking place, and is the government going to continue this practice?

Answer –

As a government, our need is to bring all these criminals to justice and enforce the law. If there is any obstruction to that process, appropriate action will have to be taken against them. We believe that the relevant parties are investigating all the actions that have taken place in the past. As journalists, you can question whether there is any deficiency in those investigations. We stand for the safety of the citizens and we are working to enforce the law. No matter which party is at fault, the government will support the investigation. If there are deficiencies, we will take action to correct them.

-Question-

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake made a statement in Parliament in 2021 that the police were killing suspects and protecting politicians. They are acting in the same old way. The first murder after this government came to power was the murder of two suspects in Kotahena. Was this discussed in the cabinet? What was discussed in the cabinet? Is the president’s statement regarding the suspects in custody still valid? What is the government’s position on the murder of these suspects?

Answer – Not the President, not only when we took over the government, even today our position is the same. If there is any deficiency in the investigations, it should be corrected. I cannot give a final conclusion about the investigation process. Everything is subject to investigation. We will see after the investigation reports come about what happened from the police side. We stand for the safety of the citizens. The security of the President or the Kotahena incident were not discussed.

Question –

What happened earlier was, when a suspect is arrested, police take him to show his hidden weapons and kill the suspect, accusing him that he tried to snatch a weapon from a police officer. Here, one of the suspects snatched the weapon from the Kotahena OIC, but the other suspect was also shot and killed by the police. When you were in the opposition, you demanded that the suspects be brought to justice and punished, but now you have started killing the arrested suspects? Don’t you have any compassion at least? You express regret for the shortcomings of some deputy ministers, why don’t you at least do something about this incident?

Answer – 

A full investigation is being conducted in this regard. We cannot talk about just one incident. These are a chain of events. We will see after the investigation report comes. You know that this culture of killings began when your party founder, Mr. Rohana Wijeweera, was killed by a group of people who were armed with weapons. That party is in power today. This is happening under you. At least this is a mistake, our practice does not mean that we approve the police killing of two suspects in Kotahena, right? 

The minister was about to answer when a journalist asked another question, so the minister avoided the answer.