A four-member committee of Judicial Medical Consultants unanimously concluded that the death of Ranga Rajapaksa, an Assistant Director at the Finance Ministry’s External Resources Department, was caused by self-inflicted cuts, the panel chair told the Kuliyapitiya Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.
JMO Dr. Ilangaratne Banda gave evidence before Magistrate Mihil Chiranthana Satharasinghe alongside Headquarters Inspector Chief Inspector Kamal Ratnayake and the police sergeant in charge of the police dog deployed during the investigation, Ada Derana reported. The four medical consultants performed a “highly meticulous dissection” and determined the injuries were self-inflicted and that death resulted from shock caused by excessive blood loss.
Senior Deputy Inspector General Ajith Rohana, an attorney-at-law and head of the North-Western Province police, examined the evidence. He pressed the JMO on the medical background of the cuts and on the term “Balanahara” — used in earlier discussions to refer to arteries. Dr. Ilangaratne said the term is not recognised in Western medical science but that he had also consulted professors of Ayurvedic medicine on the matter.
The JMO identified the deceased’s clothing, sandals and the knife allegedly used to inflict the injuries during the hearing. Photographs of the wounds were placed under court custody. SDIG Rohana asked the court to issue an order under Section 30 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, taking the pending Government Analyst’s report into account.
The magistrate ordered the case to be taken up again on June 12.
Rajapaksa had been interdicted in connection with the alleged USD 2.5 million Treasury cyber theft before he was found dead at his Kuliyapitiya residence on April 30. The Wednesday testimony formalises the suicide finding under oath in court — a conclusion police announced shortly after the death but which opposition figures including former MP Udaya Gammanpila have repeatedly contested. The CID has separately confirmed it recorded 42 statements in the underlying cyber fraud probe, with forensic findings due on July 8.
