‘The Suspect Kolama’

There is no shortage of dog and pony shows in this country.

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They are usually staged by the government in power. The SJB-led Opposition has accused the incumbent NPP administration of creating high-profile events almost weekly to distract the public from its unfulfilled promises. The Opposition has chosen to call them Kolam (highly entertaining folk dance dramas).

Interestingly, among the traditional dance dramas is the Police Kolama. One may argue that the latest addition to them is the Suspect Kolama, which was staged jointly by the police and the media at the BIA the other day upon the repatriation of a group of criminal suspects from Nepal, where they had been arrested.

Among the underworld figures, brought back from Nepal, was a key suspect in the killing of underworld kingpin Sanjeewa Samararatne aka Ganemulle Sanjeewa inside a courtroom in Colombo, in February 2025. Ishara Sewwandi is her name. She is alleged to have disguised herself as a lawyer and smuggled a small firearm, concealed in a hollowed-out copy of the Criminal Procedure Code, into the court for the killing. Both the button man and Sewwandi made good their escape after the attack, but the former was subsequently arrested, and the latter went missing. It took months for the police to trace her.