Kurunegala Raja Sabha Demolition: Accused Get Reduced Sentences

COLOMBO (News 1st); The Court of Appeal has issued a ruling on the appeal submitted by the defendants in the case concerning the demolition of the Bhuvanekaba Raja Sabha building in Kurunegala.

The court has decreed a reduction in the sentences of the accused parties, including the former mayor of Kurunegala, Thushara Sanjeeva Vitarana.

Originally convicted and sentenced to three years of incarceration by the Kurunegala Provincial High Court on December 12, 2023, the sentences have now been mitigated to one year.

The decision encompasses five individuals, among whom are the former mayor Thushara Sanjeeva, the then municipal commissioner Pradeep Nishantha Thilakaratne, municipal engineer Chaminda Bandara, works superintendent Ilaludeen Zulfikar, and backhoe machine operator Lakshman Priyantha.

These individuals were implicated in the destruction of the historic Bhuvanekaba royal court building on July 14, 2020, under the pretext of road expansion efforts.

The presiding Judge Lal Bandara of the Kurunegala Provincial High Court, adjudicating on five separate charges, initially imposed a one-year prison term for each charge, cumulatively resulting in a three-year sentence for each defendant.