The police rushed in and opened fire -Eyewitnesses.
During the ‘Go Home Gota’ campaign in April 2022, a protest was held near a petrol station in the Rambukkana area against the sale of fuel at high prices. The police unlawfully fired on the protesters, and a 41-year-old man named Chaminda Lakshan was shot dead by the police. The peaceful protest was held on 19 April 2022.
According to the interim report of the Expert Committee appointed by the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka to investigate the police shooting incident that took place in the Rambukkana area on 19 April 2022, around 200 people from Rambukkana and its surroundings had gathered at the petrol station in the early hours of 19 April 2022, hoping to get fuel for their vehicles. Accordingly, a group of people was injured in the police shooting.
The wife of the deceased Chaminda Lakshan and the injured persons had filed 07 petitions alleging that their fundamental human rights had been violated, and the Supreme Court has granted permission to hear the petitions on 28 July 2025..
The order was issued by a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices Achala Wengappuli, Priyantha Fernando and Menaka Wijesundara after considering the Fundamental Rights Petitions.
The court also ordered former Kegalle Senior Superintendent of Police K.B. Keerthirathne, who is accused of ordering the shooting and the three police officers who are alleged to have carried out the shooting, to file their objections within six weeks.
The petitioners have also been ordered to file their counter-objections to the objections within six weeks and have been summoned for a hearing on February 27.
The lawyers appearing for the petitioners submitted that direct firing without following the procedures and legal provisions to disperse a riot is completely against the law and that the petitioners’ fundamental human rights have been violated by indiscriminate shooting.
The forensic medical officer of the Kegalle District General Hospital, Specialist Dr. N.A.S.P. Wijeratne, stated in the autopsy report of Kuruvitagai Don Chaminda Lakshan that the nature of the injuries and the cause of death were as follows:
- Shock due to bleeding
- Injuries to blood vessels, muscles and tendons in the abdomen and pelvis
- A bullet fired from a firearm was mentioned.
K.D. Chaminda Lakshan, 42, who lived in Karandagasthenna, Narambedda, Hirivadunna, and Rambukkana, is a father of two.
( witht the inputs from a Sinhala language article published in WhatNews web site)