Daughter of Former Sunday Leader Editor deceased Lasantha Wickramatunga domiciled in Australia has made a statement to the investigators. She disclosed what was told to her by father Lasantha a few days before he was killed, CID Chief Inspector Nishantha De Silva informed the Galkissa Magistrate yesterday.
Further he informed the court , that Lasantha’s mobile phone was missing after he was killed. We detected this phone from Sudath Perera , who robbed it. We obtained the statement from him. We compared his finger print with the finger print of the killer found on the car. It did not tally.
In addition, we obtained finger prints of 266 Army men and compared with the finger print found on the car . None of it tallied . Finger prints of 326 Army men need to be obtained to check . First investigation was done by the TID led by DIG Chandra Wakistar. In the first instant they arrested 17 Army Intelligence Officers and they were released thereafter. In our inquiry with Wakistar, he told us that they were not arrested but sent by the Army. We called explanation from the Army in this connection. They said, 17 Army Intelligence Officers were sent at the request of the DIG Wakistar. From this we came to know that the first investigation was done just to white wash it. Subsequently we went to Australia and reordered a statement from Lasantha’s daughter .
In her statement she categorically said , that her father told her in no uncertain terms that his life is in danger because of his reporting on MiG plane purchase deal. If there is any danger to his life , Former Defence Secretary Gotabahya Rajapaksha was fully responsible for it, Lasantha told her daughter.
Apart from this, in connection with the abduction of Lasantha’s driver , we suspected Udalagama and inquired from him. From the investigation made with him, that we came to know that driver Dias was abducted and threatened because he had openly said, that Gota was responsible for the killing . Drivers’s abduction issue and Lasantha’s daughter’ s statement corroborated, he said. As no views was expressed either by the affected party or the suspects, the case was postponed to be taken up for inquiry on 20th March 2017.
