In what can be classified as a crime that fits into a Hollywood movie script, a Sri Lankan Opposition Member of Parliament, Rohana Bandara, told the media on Wednesday that an unemployed youth named Mindika who was to take up a job in South Korea in January this year was brutally murdered in a case of mistaken identity followed by an apparent police cover-up.
Appealing to the heads of all media organizations to highlight the crime, Bandara revealed the murder of Mindika was committed by two gunmen who mistook their target for another youth named Dilshan that the police allegedly wanted to eliminate.
Bandara said Dilshan owned a mobile phone shop in TelijjawIla in the Matara district and was arrested by police and brutally assaulted on a false complaint that he robbed a liquor store in 2020.
Bandara, representing the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) in Paliament, said that after police had realized Dilshan was innocent they had released him but Dilshan in turn had filed a petition with the Human Rights Commission and refused to withdraw the complaint under pressure from police who later threatened him with death.
Bandara then in a chilling revelation alleged that police had unleashed two gunmen to eliminate Dilshan at his mobile phone shop who in turn fatally shot and wounded Mindika believing he was their target in January this year.
“Dilshan at the time left his phone shop and went out and a friend of his named Mindika who sat on Dilshan’s chair in his absence was shot by the gunmen who believed he was their target and the crime was concealed because of police involvement,” said Bandara who represents the Matara district in Parliament.
He said police inaction to bring to book the killers of Mindika or investigate his murder had created a climate of fear in the country and that he and his SJB Party would pursue other avenues to bring justice to the victim’s family by going to the Human Rights Commission armed with the relevant facts and records.
“Four months have gone by and the police have failed to apprehend the culprits and we are left with no alternative other than to go to the Human Rights Commission and spend our Party funds or my personnel funds to take the case forward”, said Bandara.
