{"id":150390,"date":"2025-06-25T16:53:31","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T23:53:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=150390"},"modified":"2025-06-25T16:53:31","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T23:53:31","slug":"deputy-minister-accused-of-influencing-police-in-assault-case-of-unp-cmc-member","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2025\/06\/25\/deputy-minister-accused-of-influencing-police-in-assault-case-of-unp-cmc-member\/","title":{"rendered":"Deputy Minister accused of influencing police in assault case of UNP CMC member"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Courtesy Daily Mirror<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>Colombo, June 25 (Daily Mirror) &#8211; United National Party (UNP) General Secretary Talatha Athukorala has alleged that a Deputy Minister attempted to influence police regarding the recent assault on Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) member Sandamali Uluwitage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We are aware that this Deputy Minister contacted the Grandpass Police to inquire about the incident. One has to wonder why a government official would take such an unusual interest in a police investigation,&#8221; Athukorala remarked during a press briefing yesterday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She accused the government of undermining democratic norms. &#8220;It appears that democracy has been sidelined by this administration,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Athukorala alleged that the National People&#8217;s Power (NPP) exerted pressure on six CMC members who had initially pledged their support to the opposition, causing them to reverse their stance at the last minute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Speaking about the assault, Ms. Uluwitage claimed she was nearly strangled by her attackers. &#8220;They warned me, saying, &#8216;Be aware that we, the NPP, have secured the CMC. Watch your step,'&#8221; she recounted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She also accused the police of manipulating evidence related to the attack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy Daily Mirror Colombo, June 25 (Daily Mirror) &#8211; United National Party (UNP) General Secretary Talatha Athukorala has alleged that a Deputy Minister attempted to influence police regarding the recent assault on Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) member Sandamali Uluwitage. &#8220;We are aware that this Deputy Minister contacted the Grandpass Police to inquire about the incident. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-150390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-law-order","category-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150390","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=150390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150390\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}