Some Facts / Speculations/ Doubts arising out of the Bandaranaike Assassination

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Some Facts / Speculations/ Doubts arising out of

the Bandaranaike Assassination


I was among a group of teachers from SAC who stood in a queue for over six hours, in sun & rain, to pay our respects to the late Prime Minister, S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike, when the remains were lying in state at Horagolla in September, 1959. The mood in the country was one of extreme sadness. Many in the queue around us strongly desired that the perpetrators should receive the maximum punishment.



Death Penalty

At the time of the assassination the death penalty was suspended on the initiative of PM Bandaranaike himself  (JRJ did the same later) . A Commission of Inquiry on Capital Punishment was thereafter appointed in 1958 with Australian Professor of Law , Norwal Morris as Chairman & Professor T. Nadarajah & Sir Edwin Wijeyaratne as members. In 1959 just before the assassination, Sessional paper XIV of 1959 was published wherein the majority view was that the suspension of the death penalty should remain.

New Prime Minister

On the death of Mr. Bandaranaike,  it was W. Dahanayake , a former teacher at SAC from  1928 to 1936 , & Acting Leader of the House who was appointed the PM by the Governor General. His tenure in office was of short duration, but within a week of his appointment, a gazette notification was issued  & thereafter Parliamentary approval was obtained for the Suspension of Capital Punishment (Repeal) Act 1959 to implement the death penalty with retrospective effect. Under normal circumstances. W. Dahanayake MP would have been the first to raise his voice in protest against retrospective legislation, but in the atmosphere that prevailed then, there was no serious disagreement with this move.

Perpetrators

It was generally accepted that the Ven. Talduwa Somarama Thera was the assassin.  
The names of the alleged conspirators emerged during the course of the police investigation. Strange though  it may seem, Ven. Mapitigama Buddharakkita Thera, High Priest of the Kelaniya Temple,  even delivered an eulogy on the late Prime Minister over Radio Ceylon while the remains were still lying in state, & days before he was arrested as one of the conspirators.

Facts of the Case

A distinguished Aloysian from 1921 to 1931  & a Judge of the Supreme Court, Justice A. C. Alles, during his retirement, wrote a series of books on Famous Criminal Cases of Sri Lanka , including the Bandaranaike case & details of the case are available therein. Justice Alles, when he was Solicitor General, also appeared for  the state at the Bandaranaike Assassination Commission of Inquiry appointed in 1963 to inquire into certain matters pertaining to the case. Justice Alles passed away in 2003 & Appreciations about him, including one from Anura Bandaranaike, can be read here: http://www.worldgenweb.org/lkawgw/acalles.html.

L. G. Weeramantry, who defended the monk , Somarama also wrote a book titled “Assassination of a Prime Minister” & it was published in Geneva in 1969. ISBN: 169641.

Details of the case can also be accessed from the following links:
D. B. S. Jeyaraj –

https://www.dailymirror.lk/opinion/Aftermath-Of-Bandaranaikes-Assassination-INVESTIGATION-TO-INDICTMENT/172-175319
https://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/?p=33515

Sachi Sri Kantha -
Part 1 Politics https://tamilnation..org/forum/sachisrikantha/091010banda

Part 2 Forensics https://tamilnation.org/forum/sachisrikantha/091003banda

Part 3 Theatrics & Economics https://tamilnation.org/forum/sachisrikantha/091010banda
Chandani Kirinda - 
https://www.ft.lk/front-page/Assassination-of-a-Prime-Minister-Revisiting-the-Bandaranaike-murder-case-62-years-later/44-723437

At the Supreme Court trial, three of the accused, monk Mapitigama Buddharakkhita, H. P. Jayawardena & monk Talduwa Somarama  were found guilty by the Jury. Addressing the accused  the judge seemed to express the view that he agreed with the finding of the jury. When asked whether they had anything to say before sentence of death was passed, Buddharakkhita said that far from being the architect of a conspiracy he was the victim of one , Jayawardena denied any involvement in the conspiracy & Somarama denied shooting the Prime Minister. Sentence of death was passed on them.

See the video of the accused being taken to prison after the verdict.
https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/164486/

At the Court of Criminal Appeal, it was noted  that Parliament had not included "conspiracy to murder"  as an offence warranting the death penalty in the newly enacted legislation &  the first two accused, Mapitigama Buddharakkhita & H. P. Jayawardena had their death sentences commuted to life imprisonment.( NLR 63/433 Queen vs Mapitigama Buddharakkhita &  2 others, https://www.lawlanka.com/lal/nlrDetailView?nlrSelectedVolume=63). 

Leave to appeal to the Privy Council was refused. 

Talduwa Somarama was executed on 6 July, 1962 at Welikade Prison.

Mapitigama Buddharakkhita was assigned to work in the Prison Library & H. P. Jayawardena, in the Printing Section at Welikade Prison.

In 1966, the terms of life imprisonment imposed on Buddharakkhita & Jayawardena were commuted to terms of 20 years imprisonment. 

Prisoner Buddharakkhita died of a heart ailment at the General Hospital, Colombo in early 1967, while still serving the prison sentence. Prisoner H. P. Jayawardena, the other accused was released in 1977 on completion of his prison sentence.

Speculations

Finding of an extra  monk's robe at the scene of the crime

There was some speculation on whether another person in robes was the assassin as there was a witness who stated that she saw someone jumping over the wall saying “hari machang’ & an extra robe was found at the scene of the crime. This gave rise to the possibility that in addition to the monk, Somarama, there was at least one other person at the scene of the crime. 

Conversion of Somarama to Christianity

A few days before the execution of Talduwa Somarama he was baptised as Peter, & it was Peter who was executed. Death row prisoners were normally allowed to see a priest of their own religious denomination, & the question arose as to how he came to be baptised. It transpired that Rev. Fr. Mathew Peiris, who was the Christian Prison Chaplain had been given access to the prisoner at the latter's request. It was speculated that the Governor General, fearing a backlash if a bhikkhu was executed, prevailed upon Fr. Peiris, whom he knew well, to convert Somarama to Christianity, & that Fr. Peiris did so by promising to obtain a pardon for him. This was only speculation at the time & may or may not have been true. (Fr. Peiris himself served a term of imprisonment much later).

Book about the Assassination alleged to have been written by Buddharakkhita

No sooner the death of Buddharakkhita was announced in 1967, there was a strong rumour within & outside the Welikade Prison that he had written a book about the assassination. The  government of the day & the press were keen to get hold of it. The Superintendent of the Prison, W. J. de Silva immediately directed one of his trusted Jailors, K. Tharmarajah, National Hockey player and the Office Jailor, (who happened to be me), to search for the book in the prisoner's cell, but nothing was found. Among the senior staff were national cricketers, W. A. N. de Silva, Norton Frederick, Stanley de Alwis, etc., all of whom were held in high esteem by the prison population. They received confirmation that Buddharakkhita was often seen writing in his cell at night. The two Jailors were then locked up for the night in the prison library, where the prisoner used to work before entering hospital, & instructed to search within the covers of every book there. Around 2.00 am on the following day, a monitor's exercise book written by the prisoner was found & taken charge of by the Superintendent. The search continued till morning but nothing else was found.

It later transpired that the material contained in the book was already known to the general public at the time of the investigation & trial:

  •  the formation of the Eksath Bhikkhu Peramuna, & how it contributed to the victory of the Prime Minister                               
  • the formation of the Colombo Shipping Lines by some of his associates, which included his brother, to undertake government contracts etc
  •  the inability to move forward with their plans due to the reluctance  of the Prime Minister to approve any contracts.

Had he been able to write the next episode of this narrative, he might have shed more light about the conspiracy to assassinate the Prime Minister. However, what he had written in the exercise book did indicate that he had more than a passing interest in the shipping company & that he & the others associated with him were disappointed with the Prime Minister over the latter’s reluctance to approve contracts sought by the company. The book was handed over to the Minister of Justice.

Doubts about the Perpetrators / Findings

At the time of the assassination & thereafter there were many theories about the perpetrators involved in the crime. One of them was made a crown witness, while others were discharged  at various stages. A few others, including W. Dahanayake, were summoned before a Commission of Inquiry but the only adverse finding was made against Mrs. Vimala Wijewardena. Sessional Paper III of 1964 contains the details. Some raised questions on whether the evidence lead by the prosecution proved the charges against the accused beyond a reasonable doubt and these are referred to by Sanjiva Senanayake in the following articles : 

https://island.lk/beyond-reasonable-doubt/ 17.10.2021
https://island.lk/beyond-reasonable-doubt-r/ 24.10.2021
https://island.lk/beyond-reasonable-doubt-2/ 31.10.2021
https://island.lk/beyond-reasonable-doubt-3/ 7.11.2021

 

K. K. de Silva





 

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