In May 2019, the Hasalaka police arrested 47-year-old M.R. Mazahima, because they couldn’t tell the difference between a ship’s wheel and the Dhammachakka (Wheel of Dhamma). Mazahima was accused of wearing a dress offensive to Buddhist feelings and detained under the ICCRP. The dress was sent to the Department of Buddhist Affairs for identification.
In July 2025, the Supreme Court ruled that Mazahima’s arrest and detention were wrong and ordered the former OIC of the Hasalaka police to pay her compensation.
If the proposed Organised Crime Prevention Bill goes through, that same police will be given a freehand to arrest any citizen for wearing an ‘organised crime’ kind of dress or tattoo.
Whoever drafted the Organised Crime Prevention Bill seems to have made liberal use of the cut-and-paste method. For instance, Section 5(2) of Singapore’s Organised Crime Act of 2015, which deals with evidentiary factors for determining the guilt of an accused, states in clause c, ‘whether that person adopts the style of dress, handsigns, language or tattoos used by known members of the group’ (https://sso.agc.gov.sg/Act/OCA2015?ProvIds=P12-.) Section 4(2) of Sri Lanka’s proposed bill, which deals with evidentiary factors for determining the guilt of an accused, states in clause c, ‘whether the person adopts the style of dress, hand signs, language or tattoos used by known members of organised criminal groups’ (https://documents.gov.lk/api/content-file-proxy?file=/bill-content/PL%2015938%20%5BS%5D%20Crime%20Act_1791287837.pdf). Almost word-to-word, including the misspelling handsigns (it should be two words or a hyphenated word).
In some countries organised criminal gangs have an established history of using codes of identification such as tattoos, hand signs, passwords etc. Japan’s Yakuza gang uses elaborate tattoos of dragons and elephants, the Chinese Triads go for dragons and eagles, and Singaporean gangs favour dragons. In 2019, fans and players going to Japan for Rugby World Cup matches were urged to hide some of their tattoos to prevent misunderstandings (https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-49768799).
What tattoos, hand signals, language, and/or style of dress do Lankan organised crime groups sport? What kind of tattoos, hand signals, language, and/or style of dress would the police be instructed to look out for in a suspect? Or would the police be given a freehand to act according to whatever preconceived notions they harbour? In the absence of clear and specific guidelines, what is to prevent the police from giving into ignorance and prejudices and persecuting citizens (especially young persons with unorthodox appearances), the same way the ICCPR Act was used to persecute Mazahima?
Dreaming of a police State?
In its election manifesto, the NPP promised to reform the Online Safety Act by removing its anti-democratic clauses. That promise is yet to be honoured.
In its election manifesto, the NPP promised to abolish the PTA. That promise was shattered with the Protection of the State from Terrorism Act.
While the NPP Government has not acted repressively so far, it has also taken no steps to reform repressive laws or introduce new laws to broaden and deepen civic freedoms and liberties – as the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe Government did with the 19th Amendment and the Right to Information Act. Instead, the NPP administration is planning to use its supermajority to push through two Bills on terrorism and organised crime which, if enacted in their current forms, will have a deadly effect on the fundamental rights of all Lankan citizens, including JVP leaders and members once they lose power.
The Organised Crime Prevention Bill was drafted with no public consultation. In consequence, it contains provisions way more draconian and open to abuse than even the Protecting the State from Terrorism Act. For instance, under the PSTA, a suspect can be detained only for 48 hours before being arraigned while under the Organised Crime Prevention Bill, a suspect can be detained for 72 hours before being arraigned.
Imagine what some members of the police would do to a suspect in those 72 hours, especially since the Organised Crime Prevention Bill also allows confessions, if they are made before a police official of or above the rank of assistant superintendent of police (ASP).
This in a country where the IGP was accused by the AG’s Department of turning police officers into a ‘paramilitary force’ and running ‘a criminal network, allegedly exploiting police officers under his command for unlawful activities…’ That same Deshabandu Tennakoan was a Superintendent of Police (one rank higher than an ASP) when he ordered three suspects to be stripped, thrashed them with a ‘three-wheeler belt’, and forced them to apply Siddhalepa balm on their own genitalia.
In 2023, the Supreme Court ruled that his conduct was a ‘stark betrayal of the Rule of Law…entirely repugnant to the virtues of a democratic republic.’ In its judgement, the court focused on the systemic nature of custodial torture. ‘Violations of the kind we have observed in this case are, unfortunately, all too common. These are by no means isolated one-off events but are symptoms of longstanding institutional failures…’ The case reveals ‘a pattern of grave derelictions which has persisted for a considerable period of time’ (https://supremecourt.lk/?melsta_doc_download=1 and doc_id=44cb0b15-2cbf-48f1-9ff3-7d6b9c4e7caa and filename=sc_107_2011.pdf).
Two fundamental rights judgements made last week remind us that unlawful arrests and custodial abuses are not isolated issues but ‘symptoms of institutional failures,’ as the Supreme Court put it.
On 30 October 2026, the Supreme Court ruled that the Kuliyapitiya police violated the fundamental rights of a jewellery shop owner. The police came into his house on 13 June 2022, accused him of buying gold from a suspect, handcuffed him, made him kneel, and assaulted him in front of his wife and children. They forced him to handover his vehicle and assaulted him some more, demanding gold. CCTV cameras in the shop showed him handing over gold to the officers. When he was eventually produced before a JMO, he was threatened by Inspector Manohara to deny any assault (https://dailyfc.com/supreme-court-slams-police-for-brutal-assault-extortion-orders-compensation-for-fundamental-rights-violations/).
On 30 October 2026, the Supreme Court ruled that the Dompe police violated the fundamental rights of a woman. In October 2019, she went to the police station with a lunch packet for her husband who had been arrested by the STF on allegations of brewing illicit liquor. She too was arrested and assaulted (https://www.dailymirror.lk/breaking-news/Supreme-Court-rules-police-constable-violated-womans-fundamental-rights-through-assault/108-353909).
Less than a week before those judgements, a young suspect died while being held in the Homagama police station. According to the medical report, Ishara Harsha Kumara had suffered multiple injuries including three broken ribs and brain haemorrhage.
Two days before the custodial death at the Homagama police station, Gampaha Magistrate Bandula Gunaratne requested the Court of Appeal to file contempt charges against the IGP for ignoring a court order. The police had charged a man with possessing drugs, based on false information allegedly provided by officers of the Gampaha Police Anti-Corruption Unit. The Magistrate then ordered the IGP to issue a circular regarding arrests on drug charges. Five months on, the IGP continued to ignore the court order. ‘If the police treat a court order in this manner, what can be said about everything else in this country?’ the Magistrate asked in open court (https://srilankamirror.com/news/gampaha-magistrate-initiates-contempt-of-court-action-against-igp/).
When guardians of the law turn into serial lawbreakers, it indicates not the presence of a few bad apples but a systemic issue. Instead of understanding the problem and dealing with it, the NPP Government is intent on bringing in a new law which would confer on this same police an unprecedented level of impunity. The police, whose chief officer might face contempt of court charges soon, will soon be able to justify any custodial crime by painting every victim in the lurid colours of an organised criminal.
Early in its tenure, the NPP Government faced a litmus test on its commitment to the rule of law. In February 2025, the Kotahena police shot and killed two suspects arrested for a murder. Many of its supporters thought the Government, as it promised to do, would condemn the action and bring the perpetrators before justice. Instead, the Government indirectly defended this extra-judicial killing. Now the Government is planning to give the police near carte blanche to label any citizen an organised criminal.
In Kalama Sutta, the Buddha explains to the Kalamas the importance of doing good in this life irrespective of whether they believe in an afterlife or not. This is excellent advice for any Government. Most governments believe they will never lose power. The NPP is no exception. Even so, it would make sense to follow the Buddha’s advice and not enact repressive laws which could and would be used against them in case they lose power, someday.
Racism to the rescue?
Last month, a group of monks led by that self-proclaimed Arhat Umandawe Samanthabadra made a clay figurine of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, stuck poison thorns into it, and consigned it to the custody of folkloric demon Mahasona for punishment.
Speaking a few days later, President Dissanayake mentioned the incident and wondered about the mentality of those who engage in such practices.
It is reasonable to assume that none of the monks who engaged in a practice condemned by the Buddha as an animal art believe in Mahasona. The whole sordid spectacle was aimed at inciting supernatural fear in the public mind and using it to weaken the Government. If, for instance, some natural calamity occurs in the coming months, the monks will depict it as supernatural punishment of the Government for jailing Galagoda-Atte Gnanasara.
Addle Sinhala-Buddhist minds and use the resulting confusion to come to power.
Like Udaya Gammanpila’s baseless diatribe about an evil conspiracy to destroy Ruwanweliseya.
Remember the Sanda Hiru Seya, built in 2010-2021 between the ancient Dakkina Stupa and Isurumuniya, just two short kilometres from Ruwanweliseya? The massive edifice, an in-your-face symbol of the nexus between rata, jathiya, agama, and the Rajapaksas, was constructed in an archaeologically sensitive area – and against the advice of the archaeology department. According to former Archaeology Director General Dr Senarath Dissanayake, he asked the then president Mahinda Rajapaksa not to build the edifice in that location or to build a smaller one. His expert advice was ignored and he was compelled to give his permission to the project.
Where were the patriotic monks and the likes of Udaya Gammanpila when this atrocity was committed?
The Rajapaksas always used ethno-religious racism to gain/hold power. Ranil Wickremesinghe and Sajith Premadasa, instead of providing a rational oppositional alternative to the toxic Rajapaksa politics, are making their own efforts to appease extremists. Ranil Wickremesinghe was the prime minister and Sajith Premadasa was a key minister when Galagoda-Atte Gnanasara was sentenced to imprisonment in 2018. They, who had no problem with that sentencing then, are now demanding that Anura Kumara Dissanayake pardon the erring monk immediately. In November 2022, President Wickremesinghe said, ‘No one is entitled to special protection just because they are wearing a robe’ (Speech in Parliament – 29 November 2022 https://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/?p=80449). Today former President Wickremesinghe is demanding that all robe-wearers be accorded special protection.
In the meantime, some robe-wearers are dreaming of becoming an independent political force. In a recent interview, Agalakada Sirisumana thero talked nostalgically about the JHU experiment and opined that the monk-led party could have gained power in 2024 had it endured. He also said that when Galagoda-Atte Gnanasara comes out of prison in four years, ‘he will be able to provide leadership to this society like a monk-king (Sangha-Raja) with the help of other monks’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75UD8zUXgok). A Sinhala-Buddhist Iran or Afghanistan.
But to succeed in their combined and separate power projects, lay and robe-wearing politicians need a minority enemy. The JHU rode to parliament on an anti-Christian wave targeting non-Buddhist Sinhalese. The JHU also played an enabling role in the Galagoda-Atte Gnanasara led campaign to create the Muslim enemy in 2012/13. If neither enemy can be resurrected, an effort can be made to revive the Tiger and the Tamil enemy. Udaya Gammanpila has already accused the Government of allowing a Siva Kovil to be built in the Anuradhapura sacred city. A Siva Kovil was indeed built in Anuradhapura, not in 21CE but in 10CE – over 2 millennia ago (https://amazinglanka.com/wp/anuradhapura-siva-kovil/#google_vignette). But to rile up Sinhala-Buddhist fear and anger, any lie, however outrageous would do.
If the SJB and the UNP fail to oppose the Government on rational, economic, lines, they will soon be overtaken by the Rajapaksas and the robe-wearers who dream of becoming organ-grinders even as they continue to play the customary role of incendiary monkeys.