Shots fired at home of eyewitness in Welikada shooting
Gunmen are reported to have opened fire at the residence of Sudesh Nandimal, an eyewitness of the Welikada shooting in 2012, Police said yesterday.
Officers said the 119 police emergency call centre had received information regarding the incident which occurred in Moratuwa at around 11.00 on Monday night. Police said there were no casualties but several shots had been fired at the gate of the house.
The Moratuwa police recorded a statement from Nandimal, who is presently residing at his sister’s house in Moratuwa, following the incident. A key eyewitness to the 2012 Welikada riots, Sudesh Nandimal Silva, whose residence came under fire from a group of unidentified gunmen on Monday night, yesterday told the Daily Mirror that his life was in danger.
He had been staying with his sister after leaving his home-town, Tissamaharama, to Colombo to give a statement to the Victims of Crime and Witnesses Assistance and Protection Police Division.at the time of the shooting, Nandimal was with several of his nephews.
The Victims of Crime and Witnesses Assistance and Protection Police Division is currently carrying out an investigation into a complaint on a previous threat to his life filed by Nandimal. Speaking to the Daily Mirror, he said he was fully aware that his life was in danger as he was the only living eye-witness to the 2012 Welikada Prison riots that resulted in the death of 27 inmates. “As the law enforcement authorities are turning a blind eye to the complaints made by me about threats to my life, I am forced to face these types of assassination attempts. Those who are responsible for the massacre of inmates at the Welikada Prison started hunting me and giving me threatening telephone calls. Although the government has changed the culprits are still powerful enough to come to the front of the house and try to kill me,” Nandimal said.
Despite the continuous threats to my life, the fight for the justice that was denied to the 27 inmates who died in the riots, will continue, he noted.