A PEEP INTO THE PAST AT BOGAMBARA PRISON
Thousands of people visited the Bogambara Prisons to picture the kind of life that may have been lived by prisoners incarcerated there during its 138-year history. Some of the prisoners had even become high profile politicians.
The prison was opened for public viewing from Saturday till March 25 after the inmates were moved to the newly-built prisons complex at Pallekele on a Government decision to relocate the Bogambara Prisons.
Bogambara Prisons had one of the two gallows which was used to carry out the death sentence. The gallows was one of the exhibits most sought after by the visitors.
The three-storey prison was built in 1876 by the British who ruled the country at the time primarily for the purpose of detaining those involved in anti-government riots. It consists of 328 prison cells, a gallows, a visitors’ room and an office for prison officials.
Nearly 524 convicts had been hanged at the Bogambara gallows with the death sentence carried out for the last time in 1975 on November 21 and 25 when those convicted in the well-known Thismada murder case were hanged. One of the notable executions carried out at the Bogambara Prison was that of D.J. Siripala better known as ‘Maru Sira’ on March 5, 1975. Dr. N.M. Perera, Dr. Colvin R. de Silva, Philip Gunawardena and William de Silva of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party were among the notable political prisoners incarcerated in the Bogambara Prison under British rule.
The threestorey prison was built in 1876 by the British