A man who behaved suspiciously near the satyagraha at Viharamahadevi Park in Colombo has been arrested, Hiru News reported.
The arrest was made by Kurunduwatta Police. The man is being held and questioned, Hiru News reported in a filing stamped just after midnight Colombo time.
The satyagraha is the sit-in demanding the release of Ven. Galagodaatte Gnanasara Thera, the Bodu Bala Sena general secretary who is serving a prison sentence. Bodu Bala Sena is the organisation of which he is general secretary; it is his office, not the organiser of the protest.
The first security incident reported at a protest now in its second week
The sit-in entered its sixth day on Tuesday, when the Asgiri Chapter prelate Ven. Medagama Dhammananda said senior monks had taken legal advice and hoped a process could be started leading to a presidential pardon.
This is the first arrest at the Viharamahadevi Park site that this desk has recorded. The campaign has produced incidents before — Ven. Balangoda Kassapa Thera was hospitalised from the satyagraha on 17 October — but those were medical rather than criminal.
The policing of the campaign has itself been contested. A Fort magistrate on 16 October barred 54 people connected to it, 30 of them monks, from the area around the Presidential Secretariat under section 106(1).
What the report does not establish
The filing is three sentences long and leaves most of the question open. It does not say what the man did that was considered suspicious, whether he was armed or carrying anything, whether he was a participant in the satyagraha or an outsider, or whether he is suspected of intending harm to those taking part. It gives no name, no age and no charge — only that he is detained and being questioned.
“Suspicious behaviour” is the reporting of a police judgement, not of an established offence, and nothing in the report indicates he has been produced before a court.
Not reported
No other verified newsroom had filed on the arrest at the time of writing — the item appeared on Hiru’s desk after midnight Colombo time, ahead of the morning news cycle. Neither the Daily Mirror’s breaking-news listing nor NewsFirst’s homepage carried it. Ada Derana’s site has returned a CloudFront block to this desk for more than a month and could not be checked. This account is accordingly single-source, and the basic facts of the arrest should be treated as provisional until a second filing or a court appearance confirms them.