{"id":136796,"date":"2023-09-02T15:39:13","date_gmt":"2023-09-02T22:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=136796"},"modified":"2023-09-02T15:39:13","modified_gmt":"2023-09-02T22:39:13","slug":"sri-lankas-nero-police-officer-sacked-for-playing-piano-while-president-gotabaya-rajapaksa-fled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2023\/09\/02\/sri-lankas-nero-police-officer-sacked-for-playing-piano-while-president-gotabaya-rajapaksa-fled\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka’s \u2018Nero\u2019: Police officer sacked for playing piano while president Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled"},"content":{"rendered":"

Courtesy WION<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

STORY HIGHLIGHTS<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Constable R. M. D. Dayaratne was deployed to help protect the colonial-era residence on the day it was taken over by protesters who forced then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country. Instead, he sat at a grand piano in the compound and played a song to the crowd streaming through its rooms<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

File image – Protesters seized the residence and were later seen frolicking in the presidential pool and jumping on Rajapaksa’s four-poster bed. Photograph:(AFP)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka’s police force said Friday it had sacked an officer who entertained protesters with an impromptu piano performance after they stormed the island nation’s presidential compound last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Constable R. M. D. Dayaratne was deployed to help protect the colonial-era residence on the day it was taken over by protesters who forced then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, he sat at a grand piano in the compound and played a song to the crowd streaming through its rooms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Dayaratne was on social media playing the piano while the building was being vandalised,” a senior officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“He was our Nero,” the officer added, referring to the ancient Roman emperor said to have played the fiddle while the city burned in a weeklong fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police authorities concluded that the constable had breached discipline after a lengthy investigation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the compound was stormed in July 2022, protesters had been camped outside Rajapaksa’s office for months demanding he step down over the island nation’s unprecedented economic crisis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Protesters seized the residence and were later seen frolicking in the presidential pool and jumping on Rajapaksa’s four-poster bed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rajapaksa was accused of precipitating corruption and mismanagement that triggered the downturn, which led to severe shortages of food, fuel and medicines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was forced to seek temporary exile in Singapore, from where he issued his resignation, though he has since returned to Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His successor, Ranil Wickremesinghe, has offered an amnesty to those returning historic artefacts stolen from the building.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Courtesy WION STORY HIGHLIGHTS Constable R. M. D. Dayaratne was deployed to help protect the colonial-era residence on the day it was taken over by protesters who forced then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country. Instead, he sat at a grand piano in the compound and played a song to the crowd streaming through its rooms […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136796\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}