Update, September 24: The Prisons Department and the Sri Lanka Police are running parallel investigations into the security breach, and the specific question is how the two men were able to cross paths at all. Padmasiri has been discharged and returned to his ward at Welisara. Named spokesperson and the resolved treatment sequence below.
Update, September 23: The Department of Prisons has launched a formal inquiry and appointed an Assistant Superintendent of Prisons to establish what led to the confrontation, the Daily Mirror reports.
Two of Sri Lanka’s best-known alleged organised crime figures fought while in custody at Welisara Prison on Tuesday, leaving one of them hospitalised, Prisons Department sources told Hiru News.
The clash was between Nandun Chinthaka Wickramaratne, known as ‘Harak Kata’, and Mandinu Padmasiri, known as ‘Kehelbaddara Padme’.
Padmasiri suffered minor injuries in the attack and was first admitted to the Welisara prison hospital for treatment, Hiru reported. He was subsequently moved from Welisara to the Welikada prison hospital, the outlet said in a later filing.
Prison authorities are investigating.
A formal inquiry is now under way
The Department of Prisons has since launched a special investigation and appointed an Assistant Superintendent of Prisons to determine the circumstances that led to the confrontation, the Daily Mirror reported on Wednesday.
That report also puts the clash on the night of Tuesday the 22nd, while both men were held at Welisara — the first time a filing has narrowed the timing beyond the day.
The question the investigators are asking
The inquiry is not primarily into the fight. It is into how the two men were able to cross paths before it, Prisons Media Spokesperson Senaka Pallewatte said on Thursday, and the Sri Lanka Police and the Department of Prisons are running parallel investigations into the security breach, Hiru News reported.
That reframes the incident. The Department is treating the contact itself as the failure — two men held in the same facility who were, by implication, supposed to be kept apart. It is also the first official comment on the case attributed to a named spokesperson rather than to unnamed sources, and the first confirmation that the police are involved alongside the prison service.
Where Padmasiri was treated
The treatment sequence is now largely resolved, and it runs the way a transfer sequence would rather than as competing claims. Padmasiri sustained minor injuries, was admitted to the Welisara Naval Hospital, was subsequently discharged after treatment and returned to his designated ward at Welisara Prison, Hiru reported on Thursday. That is consistent with the Daily Mirror’s Wednesday account placing him back at Welisara.
One detail remains unreconciled. Hiru’s own Tuesday filing said he had been moved to the Welikada prison hospital, whereas its Thursday filing names the Welisara Naval Hospital as the facility. The outlet has not explained the change, and whether he passed through Welikada at any point is unconfirmed.
Hiru now gives the injured man’s full name as Mandinu Padmasiri Perera, where earlier filings had Mandinu Padmasiri. The Daily Mirror gives the first man’s name as Nadun Chinthaka Wickremeratne; Hiru gives Nandun Chinthaka Wickramaratne. These are transliteration variants of one name.
What is not confirmed
No account gives the location of the incident inside the facility, what caused it, whether weapons were used, or whether either man faces disciplinary action or fresh charges. The Department has confirmed the inquiry and the police involvement but has not said what rule or order was supposed to keep the two men apart, whether any officer has been interdicted pending the outcome, or when either investigation is due to report.
Wickramaratne is among the highest-profile inmates in the Sri Lankan system. He was transferred to a high-security facility in August after a court dismissed charges against him under the Prevention of Terrorism Act — a ruling the Attorney General has since appealed.
Housing rival figures in the same facility has been a recurring concern for the Prisons Department, which is still dealing with the aftermath of the Negombo prison riot that left 28 dead.
