September 29, 2025 – October 12, 2025 | Vol.15, #37 & 38 | ISSN 3084-9330
Photo credits: Tamil Guardian
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Analysis
Over the past two weeks, the Sinhala media—across print, television, and social media platforms (as analysed through the social media monitoring tool Junkipedia)—focused on the ongoing investigations into the 2012 murder of Sri Lankan rugby player Wasim Thajudeen.[1]
This week’s analysis is set out under three headings.
1. What was the key event that captured public attention?
On May 17, 2012: Thajudeen was killed in what was initially presumed to be a car crash in Narahenpita.[2] In February 2016, following a second post-mortem, the Colombo Magistrates’ Court ruled that Thajudeen had been murdered.[3]
September 17: Former SLPP Pradeshiya Sabha member Sampath Manamperi surrendered to the authorities in connection with investigations into buried containers of crystal methamphetamine (commonly known as ICE).[4] During questioning, he disclosed that underworld figure N.N. Prasanga (alias Backhoe Saman) had instructed him to transport weapons intended for the murder of Anura Vidanagamage (alias Kajja).[5]
September 30: Acting Police Media Spokesperson ASP Minura Senarath stated that CCTV footage, identified by Kajja’s wife, showed him in a vehicle that pursued Thajudeen’s car moments before the murder.[6]
October 1: Kajja’s eldest son publicly disputed his mother’s identification of his father in the CCTV footage, denying any involvement in Thajudeen’s murder.[7]
October 7: The CID revealed that Kajja had been employed at the Ministry of Defence at the time of Thajudeen’s murder.[8] During this period, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa served as the defence minister, and his brother, former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, served as the ministry’s secretary.[9]
The Sinhala media discourse was broadly positive towards the NPP government, reflecting confidence in its handling of the Thajudeen investigation. A marginal dissenting strand—mainly advanced by SLPP politicians—framed the investigation as politically motivated and vindictive.
2. What is the significance of the issue?
The Thajudeen case remains significant as one of Sri Lanka’s most emblematic markers of impunity.
The Thajudeen murder investigation—frequently referenced alongside other high-profile cases such as the killing of journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge—has often come to occupy a space beyond its immediate legal scope, taking on symbolic and political significance.
Its recurring prominence in public discourse, particularly around election periods, suggests how unresolved cases of this nature can be instrumentalised within political narratives to shape public perception.
This seems to have enabled successive governments—including the NPP—to leverage such cases to consolidate electoral support.
3. What is the impact on the government and the SLPP?
The Thajudeen investigation has reinforced the NPP’s justice narrative while allowing the SLPP to dismiss it as a politically motivated ‘witch-hunt.’
The government framed the investigation into Thajudeen’s murder as part of its broader mission to deliver justice and ‘cleanse the state’ of corruption and criminality. During the 2024 election campaign, the NPP invoked the Thajudeen case to appeal to its core voter base.[10]
This framing seems to have enabled the government to project moral authority and present itself as an antidote to the culture of impunity that purportedly flourished under the Mahinda and Gotabaya Rajapaksa administrations.[11] The rhetoric taps into widespread frustration with the traditional political establishment’s evasion of accountability, positioning the NPP as a vehicle for long-awaited justice. This bolstered the NPP’s image—as highlighted in past issues of MPA—as a sharp departure from the traditional political establishment.[12]
In contrast, the SLPP characterised the investigation as a politically motivated ‘witch-hunt’ aimed at discrediting the Rajapaksas and suppressing opposition forces. This counternarrative shifts attention away from the substance of the case toward claims of political persecution, allowing the SLPP to rally its base and depict the NPP as weaponising investigative processes for partisan gain.
Ultimately, the significance of the Thajudeen case lies in its function as a mirror of Sri Lanka’s political culture. Both the government and the opposition leverage the deep-seated distrust of state institutions, redirecting that cynicism to serve their respective narratives — the government towards the narrative of past abuses and criminality through these institutions, and the opposition towards a narrative of present abuse of these institutions for political victimisation.
[1] The MPA team monitored Facebook profiles, TikTok handles and YouTube channels using Junkipedia for the keywords Wasim Thajudeen, Thajudeen and Kajja in Sinhala and CID and Thajudeen in English, from September 29 to October 12, 2025.
[2] For more information, see: https://www.newsfirst.lk/2022/05/17/thajudeens-unsolved-murder-10-years-on-will-justice-be-served and https://archive.roar.media/english/life/current-affairs/remembering-wasim-thajudeen.
[3] Ibid.
[4] For more information, see: https://www.newswire.lk/2025/09/17/sampath-manamperi-surrenders-to-court/ and https://www.newsfirst.lk/2025/09/17/sampath-manamperi-surrenders-to-court-over-middeniya-drug-probe.
[5] For more information, see: https://www.newsfirst.lk/2025/09/30/ex-slpp-candidate-manamperi-admits-supplying-guns-for-kajja%E2%80%99s-murder and https://hirunews.lk/en/424797/sampath-manamperis-links-with-the-kajja-killers-revealed#google_vignette.
[6] For more information, see: https://www.adaderana.lk/news.php?nid=113086 and https://www.dailymirror.lk/print/news/CID-uncovers-fresh-lead-in-Thajudeens-mysterious-death/239-321040.
[7] For more information, see: https://www.adaderana.lk/news.php?nid=113125 and https://www.dailymirror.lk/breaking-news/My-father-had-no-hand-in-Thajudeens-death-Kajjas-son/108-321160.
[8] For more information, see: https://www.newswire.lk/2025/10/07/kajja-worked-at-defence-ministry-during-thajudeen-murder-cid/ and https://www.newsfirst.lk/2025/10/07/kajja-worked-at-mod-during-thajudeen-murder.
[9] For more information, see: https://www.defence.lk/About_us/former_defence_secretaries and https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-50389014.
[10] For more information, see: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Wm5PQkxGyWtnQEfg2tV-K9owJpXmWbQf/view; https://www.dailymirror.lk/breaking-news/Wasim-Thajudeens-death-Family-urges-fresh-probe/108-320826 and https://www.dailymirror.lk/breaking-news/Will-probe-killings-of-Thajudeen-Lasantha-President/108-295635.
[11] For more information, see: https://www.amnesty.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/ASA3759042022ENGLISH.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com and https://cpj.org/2025/02/sri-lankan-top-prosecutor-seeks-to-discharge-key-suspects-in-journalists-murder/?utm_source=chatgpt.com.
[12] See MPA Vol.15, #36.
To view this week’s news summaries, please click here.
To view this week’s social media data, please click here.
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