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Destruction of historic assembly hall: Kurunegala Mayor and 4 others get three-year jail terms
Former Kurunegala Mayor Thushara Sanjeewa Vitharana and four others were sentenced to three years of rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs. 13.7 million by the Kurunegala High Court on Thursday after they pleaded guilty to destroying an assembly hall dating back to the reign of King Buwanekabahu.
Aside from the former mayor, other accused who were sentenced by the court were Kurunegala Municipal Council Commissioner Pradeep Nishantha Thilakaratne, Municipal Engineer Chaminda Bandara Adikari, Superintendent I. Zulfikar, and backhoe operator Lakshman Priyantha.
The Attorney General had indicted the accused on five counts under the Antiquities Ordinance and the Criminal Procedure Code over the destruction of the historic building that occurred on June 14, 2020. All accused pleaded guilty to the first charge, namely conspiring to destroy the Assembly Hall. They also pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the destruction of the assembly hall and destroying the building.
High Court Judge Lal Ranasinghe Bandara sentenced each of the accused to one year’s rigorous imprisonment for each of the three charges they pleaded guilty to. Accordingly, they were sentenced to three years rigorous imprisonment each and fined Rs. 13.7 million. The court also imposed a fine of Rs. 125,000 on each of the accused.
Deputy Solicitor General Madhawa Tennakoon along with Senior State Counsel Padmal Weerasinghe De Silva and State Counsel Sachini Iddamalgoda appeared for the Attorney General.
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