Former Senior DIG Lalith Jayasinghe has been sentenced to 5 years imprisonment for intimidating the Kahawatte OIC in a case linked to MP Premalal Jayasekera.

The Ratnapura High Court today sentenced the former Senior DIG on charges of having intimidated the Kahawatte OIC urging him not to arrest MP Premalal Jayasekera over a shooting incident during the 2015 Presidential election.

MP Premalal Jayasekera was accused of opening fire at a group that was decorating an election stage for the then-common candidate of the presidential election Maithripala Sirisena at Kahawatte.A political supporter was injured in the shooting carried out on the morning of January 05, 2015 and had succumbed to injuries after being hospitalized.

In July 2020, the Ratnapura High Court sentenced to death MP Premalal Jayasekara on charges of murdering another individual in Kahawatte in 2015.The Ratnapura District MP appealed the decision, requesting the court to acquit and free him from all charges and the death sentence imposed on him.

In March 2022, the Court of Appeal acquitted the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) MP and three others from the death sentence issued over the case.