President Anura Kumara Dissanayake declared in Batticaloa on Wednesday that no amount of public protest can derail the law-enforcement work now underway against figures who once operated outside legal scrutiny.
“When the law begins to reach those who once stood above it, they become agitated. They are not accustomed to respecting the law,” the President said. “No amount of shouting or pressure can prevent the enforcement of the law. Even if groups gather around institutions, it cannot obstruct the process.”
He framed the message as the end of an era in which “historical influence, political connections, and family background” carried weight in legal proceedings. The Criminal Investigation Department, the Colombo Crimes Division and the Narcotics Bureau, he said, are running extensive investigations in parallel, with arrests already made and trials under way in several cases.
The President was at pains to separate the work from political vendetta. “We have no hatred or anger toward anyone. But we have a responsibility entrusted to us by the people, to build a society where everyone lives within the boundaries of the law.”
He also pressed the institutional-independence point, telling officials that the police investigate, the Attorney General’s Department files cases and the judiciary tries them — each within its statutory boundary. “No one will interfere in your investigations. No one will interfere in judicial processes,” he said, adding that he himself would not exceed presidential authority and would seek legislative changes through Parliament where current frameworks proved restrictive.
The speech landed on the same day the Fort Magistrate’s Court heard fresh disclosures naming a former intelligence chief as the contractor behind the Easter Sunday bombings, and as the Chandrasena bail-fraud thread continued to produce arrests. Dissanayake’s Batticaloa visit also covered the dollar-supply pressure and a new public library opening.
