Hon. Sunil Watagala, Attorney-at-Law

¶ 01 Madam Deputy Chairperson, Hon. Dayasiri Jayasekara raised here the Trincomalee incident, and several Members did so too. I am speaking clearly on the advice of the Secretary to the Ministry of Justice. I asked her what the matter was. She stated clearly that under Section 106 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Police have reported the matter to the Hon. Magistrate’s Court. Then we are debating in this House a matter that has been reported. That cannot be done. That is one.

¶ 02 Madam Deputy Chairperson, this is now moving towards a different end. Hon. Rasamanickam came with a good approach but is now asking how to expand this. This has now spread to Dehiwala as well. The Dehiwala matter is very clear. It is an incident before we came to power. But the Buddha statue was reinstalled after we came. It was stolen and then secretly brought back and placed. Now they are looking at how to drag this into racism and religious hatred. This debate is moving to a very bad place. Therefore, please intervene and stop this immediately.