The Hon. Sunil Watagala, Attorney-at-Law — Deputy Minister
The Deputy Minister clarified that the documents and court actions referred to by another Member related to different periods and judicial officers at the Mount Lavinia Magistrate’s Court. He stated that orders made in 2024 predated the current Government, while the 2025 controversy concerned Magistrate Chathurika de Silva and did not involve an order to arrest and produce Minister Wasantha Samarasinghe or Deputy Minister Mahinda Jayasinghe. He said only directions were issued for them to give statements, and argued that the Member had conflated events from 2024 and 2025.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 You need not copy it now. Any Member can access a tabled document. If so, please send me the copy you have now; that settles it.
¶ 02 Hon. Deputy Chairperson, what the Hon. Member referred to relates to September 2024. In September 2024, Nilupuli Lankapura Madam was at Mount Lavinia Magistrate’s Court. We are speaking of 2025. The controversy in 2025 relates to Chathurika de Silva Madam, who took office in August 2025. Before she left, she is said to have made an order. There are orders by Nilupuli Lankapura on 20.12.2024, and earlier in September too.
¶ 03 Let me say this clearly: all this occurred before we assumed office. This was a situation before our Government. The recent controversy was a claim that after we came to power, the Mount Lavinia Magistrate ordered the arrest and production of Minister Wasantha Samarasinghe and Deputy Minister Mahinda Jayasinghe. I say that is grossly misleading; no such order was made. What was there were directions, pursuant to which they went and gave statements. That is the truth. Hon. Dayasiri has conflated 2024 and 2025.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Wednesday, 24 September 2025 ·No. 1759815459006615 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Sunil Watagala, Attorney-at-Law — Deputy Minister. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 24 September 2025. No. 1759815459006615. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/20976