Udaya Gammanpila says he will face Kuliyapitiya Police with evidence over Ranga Rajapaksa’s death claim and is ready for remand.
Udaya Gammanpila has declared that he is ready to prove his statement on the death of Ranga Rajapaksa with evidence, while accusing President Anura Kumara Dissanayake of interfering with the judiciary through his May Day remarks.
The leader of the Pure Sinhala Heritage party made the remarks at a media briefing yesterday, responding to the Police Media Spokesperson, who had claimed that Gammanpila’s statement regarding Ranga Rajapaksa’s death was false. Gammanpila said he does not make statements based on assumptions, unlike President Anura Dissanayake.
Referring to a letter issued by the Director General of Health Services in May 2026, Gammanpila said the document clearly states that the wife of Ranga Rajapaksa had informed authorities that her husband’s death was suspicious.
He also said he had been notified to appear before the Kuliyapitiya Police on the 9th at 10:00 am to provide a statement regarding the incident. Gammanpila said he would go to the police station on that day carrying the evidence in his possession.
He insisted that the government was trying to imprison him not because he had committed theft or murder, but because he continues to raise questions for which the government has no answers.
“Yesterday, the Police Media Spokesperson held a media briefing and said that my claim that the wife of Ranga Rajapaksa suspected his death was false. He did not stop there. He also said that the police are taking steps to bring me to the Kuliyapitiya Police to record a statement and then produce me before the Kuliyapitiya Magistrate,” Gammanpila said.
“The Police Media Spokesperson probably thinks I am like President Anura Dissanayake. I respectfully ask the Police Media Spokesperson not to insult me by measuring me according to the President’s standards. What is the difference between us? President Anura Dissanayake speaks based on assumptions. I speak based on evidence,” he said.
Gammanpila said they had never made statements based on assumptions, unlike President Anura Dissanayake, who, according to him, claimed to have seen 19 Lamborghinis being unloaded from a ship in Namal Rajapaksa’s name, claimed to have seen Rajapaksas hiding stolen money in Uganda, claimed to have seen taxpayers’ money being spent to send Chichi rockets, and claimed to know the cheque numbers given to Mahinda Rajapaksa by Chinese companies.
“When we make a statement, we make it based on evidence,” Gammanpila said.
He then questioned the basis of his own statement and said the source was clear. According to him, on May 1, 2026, the Director General of Health Services, acting on the directive of the Kuliyapitiya Magistrate, appointed a four-member post-mortem committee to investigate the death of Ranga Rajapaksa.
Gammanpila said the second paragraph of the letter appointing that committee contained the relevant information. He said the letter was written in English and then read out the relevant section.
“It has been reported that Nishshanka Arachchilage Seelawathi, a resident of Pahalawirabhuwa, Kuliyapitiya, within the Kuliyapitiya Police Division, has informed that her husband Abeysinghe Arachchilage Ranga Nishantha Rajapaksa died under suspicious circumstances on 30th April 2026.”
Explaining the meaning of that passage, Gammanpila said it stated in simple terms that Seelawathi Nishshanka Arachchilage, a resident of Weerabuwa, Kuliyapitiya, within the Kuliyapitiya Police Division, had informed that her husband, Abeysinghe Arachchilage Ranga Nishantha Rajapaksa, died under suspicious circumstances on April 30, 2026.
“So then, it is not me, Udaya Gammanpila, who says that the wife informed that Ranga Rajapaksa’s death was suspicious. It is the Director General of Health Services, one of the highest senior officials in the country. He is not saying this somewhere casually. It is written in the appointment letter of the committee appointed to conduct the post-mortem examination,” Gammanpila said.
He said his statement was made based on that letter as evidence, and not on assumptions like President Anura Dissanayake. Gammanpila said the only word he had added at his media briefing, which was not in the letter, was that the information had been given to the police.
He explained that he made that reference because the address mentioned in the letter was within a police division. “Generally, as far as I know, if a death is suspicious, you do not report it to a temple, a school, or a hospital. You report it to the police,” he said.
Gammanpila also questioned the conduct of the Police Media Spokesperson, saying that when the spokesperson accused him of making a false statement, the very person who wrote the letter, the Director General of Health Services, was seated to his right at the same media briefing.
“If the Media Spokesperson had asked the person sitting to his right before speaking, he could have known the truth of this matter,” Gammanpila said.
He further confirmed that, as stated by the Police Media Spokesperson, he had received a notice from the Kuliyapitiya Police to appear on May 9th at 10:00 am to give a statement. He said he would go to the Kuliyapitiya Police on Saturday with the evidence.
Gammanpila then referred to remarks by Minister Nalinda Jayatissa, saying his “friend the Honourable Minister” had once again stated that a case would be filed against him.
“This is the ninth time this government has tried to put me in jail. You may remember that the independence of our country’s judiciary saved us all the previous eight times,” he said.
He said the government wanted to file cases against them not because they had committed theft, murder, or adultery, but because they asked questions the government could not answer. If such a struggle against the government meant going to jail, Gammanpila said they were ready to face it in a way that would inspire the people’s militancy.
He said the government had failed to jail him on all eight previous occasions, and claimed that the leaders of the Malima government now had a strong desire to place him in prison.
“Perhaps they cannot sleep at night until I am jailed. That is why they keep bringing baseless false cases,” Gammanpila said.
He added that the alleged sleeplessness of Malima leaders was itself a danger to the country, because lack of sleep reduces sanity and leads to irrational conduct.
“Therefore, since their physical health is crucial to the nation’s future, if it will help them sleep well at night, we are prepared to spend a short time in remand prison. They need it too. They have been saying this for a long time,” Gammanpila said.
