Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa visited the Dehiwela Police Station on Wednesday to meet youth activist Ashan Kottewatta, who was taken into custody after raising concerns about the alleged politicisation of Divisional Secretariat offices under the Clean Sri Lanka project. The activist, identified by NewsFirst as Ashan Madhushanka, was released on bail by the Mount Lavinia Magistrate’s Court on a personal bond of Rs. 100,000 the same afternoon.
Speaking to reporters after the visit, Mr. Premadasa called the arrest a violation of Mr. Kottewatta’s fundamental rights, and said freedom of speech, access to information and freedom of expression were guaranteed by the Constitution. He said the activist had exposed how government appointments under the Clean Sri Lanka programme were being used to politicise the Divisional Secretariat system.
“At present all Divisional Secretariat and District Secretariat offices have been subjected to JVP-isation, and revealing this has been turned into a political crime,” he said. “In response to a request by a municipal councillor, a municipal official only printed and handed back WhatsApp information sent by the councillor. That was not theft but the exercise of a democratic right.”
The Opposition Leader said the Samagi Jana Balawegaya would take “the highest possible legal action” to protect Mr. Kottewatta’s rights and called on both government and opposition MPs to act. “Detaining him in police custody on such a trivial matter is an undemocratic and disgraceful act,” he said.
The complaint was lodged by Dehiwela-Mount Lavinia Deputy Mayor Vindana Edirisuriya, who accused the activist of criminal trespass into the opposition councillors’ office and misuse of public property. NewsFirst reported the activist had presented himself as a social-media operator for SJB municipal councillor Channa Wikumge and used municipal council facilities — a computer, electricity and a photocopying machine — to produce and upload a video to social media. After being produced before the Mount Lavinia Magistrate, he was released on a Rs. 100,000 personal bond.
The episode marks the first documented arrest linked to public criticism of administrative appointments under the Clean Sri Lanka project, the NPP government’s flagship governance programme. The Opposition’s “JVP-isation” framing is the sharpest formal characterisation by SJB of the ruling coalition’s appointment patterns at sub-national administrative offices since the September 2024 election. NewsFirst noted that Mr. Premadasa’s right-to-information remarks came in the context of journalists being denied access to cover his own party’s May Day rally on May 1.
