Killing people demanding clean water: Four military personnel, including Maj. Gen acquitted and released

The Gampaha HC Trial-at-Bar yesterday (17) acquitted four accused in the 2013 Rathupaswala shooting case where the Army shot dead three persons and wounded 45 others during a protest by villagers demanding clean drinking water.

The Court acquitted and released the four Army personnel, including a Major General, who had been a Brigadier at the time of the incident.

The Army, on August 01, 2013, opened fire at villagers at Weliweriya, protesting against a factory which they alleged polluted their groundwater. They demanded clean drinking water.

In August 2019, then Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya appointed a Trial-at-Bar consisting High Court Judges Menaka Wijesundara (President), Nimal Ranaweera and Nishantha Hapuarachchi to hear the Rathupaswala case, after considering the Attorney General’s request.

On September 11, 2019, the Attorney General filed indictments before the Trial-at-Bar at the Gampaha High Court, against then-Brigadier Anura Deshapriya Gunawardena and three other military persons.