The Ratwatte Drama: How Does Prisons Commissioner Upuldeniya Continue In His Position After Blatant Cover-up Attempt?

September 15, 2021

After the resignation of State Minister Lohan Ratwatte, questions have arisen as to how Commissioner General of Prisons Thushara Upuldeniya continues in his position despite his deliberate lies to the public over the incident involving Ratwatte.

When media questioned Upuldeniya and Prisons Ministry Media Spokesman Chandana Ekanayake over the incident, both of them claimed ignorance and said no such incident had been reported. The resignation of Ratwatte has made it clear that Upuldeniya and Ekanayake delierately lied to the media to cover up the incident.

It has now been revealed that on the evening of the 12th of September the State Minister for Prisons had gone to the Anuradhapura prisons, summoned the Tamil political prisoners and had got two of them to kneel in front of him. The State Minister had then pointed his personal firearm at them and had threatened to kill them on the spot.

After the incident was reported in the media, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa telephoned Ratwatte and asked him to hand over his letter of resignation.

Prisons State Minister Lohan Ratwatte submitted his resignation earlier today, saying he would like to 'prevent any inconvenience to the government' due to media reportage around the recent incident.

In his letter, Ratwatte said he conducted his duties thus far 'very successfully'.