Sabeer Mohamad.
Ven. Ampitiye Sumanarathana Thera, Chief Incumbent of Sri Mangalarama Vihara in Batticaloa, is no stranger to controversy. Hailed by some as a fierce protector of Buddhism in the East, the 56-year-old bhikkhu is equally notorious for his outspoken, no holds barred approach and physical confrontations, taking on police, Government officials, and even fellow clergy making him one of the most divisive figures in the region.
It was perhaps no surprise, then, that on December 15, the Batticaloa Magistrate’s Court issued a warrant for the arrest of the bhikkhu after he failed to appear for a hearing, prompting police, who had earlier claimed he was missing, to launch a search for him.
Unlike previous incidents ranging from assaulting a pastor and causing disturbances at police stations and a bank to holding unauthorised protests, these allegations are far more serious and could land the bhikkhu in far greater trouble than he anticipated.
The case currently before the courts originates from a complaint filed on October 23, 2023 by Attorney-at-Law Dhanuka Rananjaka Kahandagamage under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) Act. The complaint centres on a statement allegedly made by Ven. Ampitiye Sumanarathana Thera in Batticaloa, reportedly in the presence of police officers, in which he threatened members of the country’s Tamil community now residing in the South.
Alleged deliberate action
Earlier in October 2023, Ven. Ampitiye Sumanarathana Thera had lodged a complaint with the Batticaloa police, alleging that the Batticaloa Municipal Council had deliberately destroyed a cemetery used by Sinhalese residents in the Jayanthipura area. He later amplified these claims on social media, asserting that several graves, including his mother’s, had been demolished. It was during this period that the Thera allegedly made the statement that later formed the basis of Kahandagamage’s complaint.
The statement, made in Batticaloa, an area still scarred by the memory of war and reportedly in the presence of police officers, was seen by the complainant as having the potential to incite racial tensions.
The Batticaloa Municipal Council at the time, however, rejected claims that graves had been deliberately destroyed. Municipal Commissioner N. Sivalingam said that the land in question was an abandoned cemetery, unused for more than two decades, where tombstones had naturally deteriorated due to neglect. Construction debris from a drainage project had been temporarily dumped there for reuse, without any malicious intent.
Following objections from bhikkhus associated with the nearby Jayanthipura Buddhist Centre, the Council agreed to clear the debris, construct a fence, and allocate a separate cemetery for Sinhalese residents. According to the Commissioner, the matter was resolved through discussion, and police complaints were filed against two contractors who had dumped debris without authorisation, leading to arrests.
Ven. Kadahirigama Thammasiri Thera, the incumbent of the Jayanthipura Buddhist Centre also confirmed that a complaint had been filed on October 22, 2023 and that assurances were given by the Municipal authorities. He said that if Ven. Sumanarathana Thera believed his mother’s grave had been destroyed, he was entitled to lodge a complaint.
However, the case has highlighted a stark inconsistency in police action under the ICCPR Act. While enforcement has often been swift in other instances, it was notably slow when it came to Ven. Sumanarathana Thera.
Signatory to ICCPR
Sri Lanka acceded to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 1980, and Parliament passed the ICCPR Bill in 2007 to bring international human rights protections into domestic law, safeguarding freedoms of thought, expression, and equality before the law.
In practice, however, enforcement has often taken a different path. Complaints received by the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka over the years reveal a pattern in which the ICCPR Act has frequently been used to target political opponents, writers, activists, and members of minority communities. This selective application intensified under the Rajapaksa administrations and has persisted under subsequent Governments, turning the Act into a convenient instrument to criminalise speech deemed inconvenient to those in power.
Against this backdrop, the delay in acting on Ven. Sumanarathana Thera’s case stands out starkly. In recent years, even youth holding simple roadside placards had been swiftly detained and transported in police buses, underscoring the unusual slowness in this instance.
What followed the Thera’s shocking statement was far from a swift investigation into incitement to ethnic violence; instead, it was marked by prolonged delays. Complaints were lodged in 2023 by MP Shanakkian Rasamanikkam at the Kaluwanchikudy police station and by Attorney-at-Law Dhanuka Rananjaka Kahandagamage at the Police Headquarters. Kahandagamage later escalated the matter to the Human Rights Commission, citing police inaction.
In the same year, former Parliamentarian M. A. Sumanthiran wrote to the Inspector General of Police, while MP Mano Ganesan publicly urged the Minister of Public Security to enforce the law. Civil society groups, including the Solidarity Movement for the People’s Struggle in the North and the East, also called for legal action against the Thera’s statement.
Despite these multiple interventions, the investigation continued to stall. At the time, former Senior DIG for the Eastern Province, Ajith Rohana, said that the statements and video evidence were being collected and that further updates would be provided following inquiries.
Writer’s arrest
But the contrast with previous ICCPR cases is stark. In April 2019, writer Shakthika Sathkumara was arrested over a short story posted on Facebook and detained for 130 days before being released on bail, only to be acquitted later when the Attorney General found no grounds for prosecution.
In May 2019, a Muslim woman named, Masahina was arrested in Mahiyanganaya for allegedly wearing a garment said to resemble a Dharma Chakra. Charged under the ICCPR Act, she was denied bail at the Magistrate’s Court and later reported harassment while in custody.
Similarly, social activist and teacher Ramzi Rasik was arrested in April 2020 over a Facebook post calling for ideological resistance to anti-Muslim racism. Despite filing complaints about threats against him, he spent nearly 161 days in detention before being released, and was eventually acquitted in 2023.
None of these cases involved threats of mass violence. Yet the ICCPR Act was applied swiftly and harshly, highlighting the striking discrepancy in enforcement compared with the prolonged inaction in Ven. Sumanarathana Thera’s case.
A decisive shift occurred in the last week of November 2025, when the Attorney General’s Department formally instructed the Police to arrest Ven. Ampitiye Sumanarathana Thera in connection with the ICCPR case. The directive reportedly followed the submission of a video clip capturing the Thera’s statement to the Government Analyst for examination and was seen by legal observers as a belated acknowledgment that the evidence met the threshold for prosecution.
The case was scheduled before the Batticaloa Magistrate’s Court on December 8, 2025. While the directive was welcomed as an assertion of prosecutorial authority, questions arose over the delay in action. On December 15, the court issued an arrest warrant after the unusually brazen Thera failed to appear, but police reported he was “missing.” When summoned, only an Assistant Superintendent appeared, citing the Thera as untraceable. Concerned, the Magistrate referred the matter to the Batticaloa High Court for December 17, noting the gravity of the alleged offence under a statute preventing incitement to discrimination and violence.
On December 17, the Thera appeared before the High Court, and indictments were filed under the ICCPR Act. He now stands accused of violating Section 3(1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Act No. 56 of 2007, for allegedly distributing a video clip to journalists and facilitating its broadcast on or around October 25, 2023 in Batticaloa.
The clip reportedly contained the statement that threatened racial and religious harmony and posed a risk to national security. He was granted bail on two sureties of Rs. 100,000 each, with conditions including an overseas travel ban, surrender of his passport, and a directive to record a statement with the Batticaloa police. While the bail recognised the seriousness of the charge, the earlier failure to execute the arrest warrant drew scrutiny, highlighting concerns about selective enforcement of the ICCPR Act.
In many previous ICCPR cases, suspects were arrested promptly, often before courts could fully assess evidence.
The 2025 developments have now revived public debate over institutional gaps in law enforcement. Beyond the verdict, questions linger over the police’s conduct, delays in decisive action, and the broader principle that all persons are equal before the law, a principle repeatedly affirmed in Sri Lanka’s legal discourse but still tested in practice.