{"id":138980,"date":"2023-12-14T16:19:30","date_gmt":"2023-12-14T23:19:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=138980"},"modified":"2023-12-14T16:20:26","modified_gmt":"2023-12-14T23:20:26","slug":"former-kurunegala-mayor-convicted-for-destroying-removing-ancient-kings-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2023\/12\/14\/former-kurunegala-mayor-convicted-for-destroying-removing-ancient-kings-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Kurunegala Mayor convicted for destroying &amp; removing ancient &#8216;King&#8217;s Court&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Courtesy Hiru News<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>The Kurunegala High Court has convicted five individuals, including the former Mayor of Kurunegala, Thushara Sanjeewa Vitharana, for their role in the destruction and removal of the ancient &#8216;King&#8217;s Court&#8217; (Raja Sabha Mandapaya). The court handed down a three-year sentence of rigorous imprisonment to each of the five suspects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u0d9a\u0dd4\u0dbb\u0dd4\u0dab\u0dd1\u0d9c\u0dbd \u0dbb\u0dcf\u0da2 \u0dc3\u0db7\u0dcf \u0db8\u0dab\u0dca\u0da9\u0db4\u0dba \u0dc3\u0db8\u0dad\u0dbd\u0dcf \u0d9a\u0dc5 \u0dc4\u0dd2\u0da7\u0db4\u0dd4 \u0db1\u0d9c\u0dbb\u0dcf\u0db0\u0dd2\u0db4\u0dad\u0dd2\u0da7 \u0db6\u0dbb\u0db4\u0dad\u0dc5 \u0dc0\u0dd0\u0da9 \u0dc3\u0dc4\u0dd2\u0dad\u0dc0 \u0dc3\u0dd2\u0dbb \u0daf\u0dac\u0dd4\u0dc0\u0db8\u0dca - Hiru News\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/E-MAf4oSjoU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The case revolved around the deliberate destruction of the historical site, raising concerns about the preservation of Sri Lanka&#8217;s rich cultural heritage. The court&#8217;s decision underscores the importance of safeguarding ancient sites and sends a strong message regarding accountability for those involved in their destruction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy Hiru News The Kurunegala High Court has convicted five individuals, including the former Mayor of Kurunegala, Thushara Sanjeewa Vitharana, for their role in the destruction and removal of the ancient &#8216;King&#8217;s Court&#8217; (Raja Sabha Mandapaya). The court handed down a three-year sentence of rigorous imprisonment to each of the five suspects. The case revolved [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[156],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-138980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-law-order"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138980","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=138980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138980\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}