(Lanka-e-News-02.Feb.2013, 4.30PM) That is two years ago 31-Jan-2011 the Lanka e news was set on fire and reduced to ashes. At midnight on that day , the office which was situated at Malabe was put to the torch. All the computers and office equipments therein were totally destroyed. The premises that housed the office belonging to a friend of Lanka e news too was completely devastated ruthlessly .
When we inquired from the superior police officer regarding the investigation that is being conducted into this crime of arson and wanton destruction , he said , two suspects addicted to drugs were taken into custody in this connection and a case is ongoing. However they are right now free having been enlarged on bail, he noted. When we asked this officer whether there is evidence to incriminate them in this crime , he replied, one of the suspects had made a confession to the police that he committed the crime on a payment of Rs. 10000/- paid to him for it, and he does not know the person who paid him the money. In the confession of the suspect it is revealed he acted in pursuance of a contract of Negombo Feroz , an underworld criminal whom he came to know in the remand prison, the police officer explained.
The police officer further stated that in the confession to the police it is stated by the suspect that he carried out this contract for a Mahathaya ( gentleman) and the latter had been instructed by somebody abroad.
Intriguingly , so far Negombo Feroz had not been questioned despite this incriminating confession. Moreover , the person (mahathaya) who gave the Rs. 10000/- to the kudu addict suspect or the person abroad who instructed had not been searched for or apprehended.
It is crystal clear to any one unless one is an idiot , from what is revealed in the foregoing paragraphs that a wayside drug addict had been arrested and a bogus tale concocted in order to suppress the true picture. In any event , following the arson committed on Lanka e news and the subsequent ban of the website some months later in SL , the Headquarters that was functioning in SL was completely closed down.
However , the Lanka e news quarters in the Temple Trees, defense ministry police headquarters, CID, Govt. offices , Ministries and MP offices could not be closed . A number of Lanka e news information centers were opened. They cannot be put to the torch nor can they be banned, because they cannot be searched and found by the marauders and murderers .
Since the Lanka e news office was destroyed in January 2011 ,and our journalist Prageeth Ekneliyagoda was also abducted in January , we have declared the month of January as ‘black January’, and a protest was staged in Colombo on the 20th of January against the series of suppressive actions taken to destroy media freedom.
This demonstration that was held at the Lipton circus culminated in a meeting at the Public library. A large number of media Organizations jointly , along with civil Organizations, Lawyers and opposition MPs participated .
Photographs depicting the demonstration and the subsequent meeting are hereunder.
