-By Sanjaya Dassanayake
(Lanka-e-News -15.Dec.2025, 9.40 PM) It has been three years since Janashakthi Insurance Company Director Dinesh Shafter, a powerful figure in Sri Lanka’s business sector, was murdered in broad daylight.
On December 15, 2022, between 2-3 pm, in a deserted area of the Borella Cemetery in Colombo, Dinesh Shafter was found dead in his own car, his hands tied behind his back, placed on the car seat, tied with a wire, and strangled with a plastic wire. He was found by his business associate Krish Perera and admitted to the Colombo National Hospital, later pronounced dead.
The then Acting Inspector General of Police Deshabandu Tennakoon took steps to transfer the investigation into Shafter’s death to the CID, and the investigation into Shafter’s murder was among the first investigations conducted by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) after the current NPP government came to power.
On December 15, 2022, at around 2.00 pm, Shafter left his house on Flower Road, Colombo 07, telling his wife, Tani Shafter, that he was going to meet Brian Thomas, a veteran cricket commentator who had taken a huge loan of 1.43 Billion Rupees from him and had defaulted on it.
Schafter had said that he would return in half an hour after meeting Brian Thomas, but due to the delay of her husband, who was supposed to leave for England with her that night, Tani called Shafter's phone several times after half an hour, but when there was no response from the phone, she immediately checked her husband's whereabouts using GPS technology. Then, further disturbed by the realisation that her husband was in the Borella cemetery, she told her husband's business friend, Krish Perera, about this and asked him to go to the relevant place immediately.
Krish Perera, who went to the Borella cemetery in search of Shafter at the request of Shafter's wife Tani, saw Shafter's body tied to the driver's seat in his car, which was parked in a deserted corner of the cemetery. He immediately shouted for help, and two cemetery workers came to his aid. With their help, Krish Perera was able to immediately admit his friend to the Colombo National Hospital, but the doctors were unable to save Dinesh's life.
Although the initial investigation into Dinesh Shafter's death was conducted by the Borella Police, the then Acting IGP, Deshabandu Tennakoon, the most corrupt IGP of the Sri Lanka Police, transferred the investigation to the Criminal Investigation Department's Gang Robbery and Homicide Division.
Its director was Senior Superintendent of Police Hemal Prashantha, the nephew of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa's chief security guard , Neville Wanniarachchi, who is currently being talked about as a highly corrupt police officer and has been accused of collaborating with drug traffickers in bulk while he was the Director of the Police Narcotics Division. He was a very trusted henchman of IGP Deshabandu and the then Minister in charge of Police, Tiran Alles.
The police first pointed their suspicion towards Brian Thomas after Shafter's wife Tani Shamin told the police that the last time he left his house at No. 37, Flower Road, Colombo 07, after Shafter's death was to meet Brian Thomas (BT).
Well-known Sri Lankan cricket commentator Brian Thomas had taken a loan of Rs. 1.43 billion from Shafter. Brian Thomas was once remanded in custody after Shafter filed a case for non-payment.
Police said their investigations have confirmed that Brian Thomas did not leave his home on the day Dinesh Shafter died and that his phone records are not suspicious. However, the CID has not taken any further action to investigate whether he killed Dinesh with the help of anyone.
However, the court had banned former cricket commentator Brian Thomas from travelling abroad at the request of the CID. Evidence from Thomas indicated that Shafter had requested a meeting with him that day, but Brian Thomas refused. However, it was reported that the CID was unable to establish his involvement in the incident through questioning Brian Thomas.
However, Dinesh Shafter, a well-meaning businessman with no enemies in the business world, had only one grudge. According to Dinesh's family, that was Brian Thomas. Brian Thomas had been at loggerheads with Shafter after he was imprisoned for failing to repay the Rs. 143 crore he had borrowed from Shafter for a company that Brian Thomas had run.
Therefore, the Shafter family and friends believe that Brian Thomas may have murdered Shafter with the help of someone to escape this case and avoid paying the huge loan of 143 million. However, the Shafter family and friends strongly believe that a very powerful group is trying to prevent the disclosure of information about the killer.
According to the testimonies of Chris Perera, the first person to reach the scene of Shafter's encounter, and a Borella cemetery worker, it has been revealed that a skinny man had run from the scene towards the cemetery crematorium. However, investigators did not investigate who this man was and did not report the matter to the court.
The cemetery worker who came to Chris Perera's aid had also seen this man. However, police investigators say that he has no clear memory of the person who ran away. Chris Perera showed a picture of Brian Thomas to the cemetery worker who came to his aid and asked if this was him, but the worker had no memory of it.
However, according to the statements of Chris Perera and the cemetery worker who first saw Shafter in his car, his hands were tied behind his back, he was tied to the driving seat of the car, and his neck was strangled with a plastic strap. Although anyone would understand that such an accident could not have happened to him, the CID investigators made a ridiculous attempt to show that he committed suicide by ignoring this evidence.
Two days after the death, Colombo forensic medical officer Ruhul Haque stated in his report that the cause of death was asphyxiation due to strangulation with a wire. However, the second report he himself submitted to the court on February 8, 2023 was surprising.
It stated that Shafter’s cause of death was cyanide poisoning. The first report he submitted that Shafter died of suffocation due to strangulation was like a bombshell. The second report by Colombo forensic medical officer Ruhul Haque stated that he did not suffer fatal injuries due to strangulation and that he died from cyanide ingestion.
Along with this “cyanide report”, the CID also reported to the court facts found during its investigations that suggest that Shafter committed suicide rather than murder.
A shocking incident occurred 10 days after Shafter's death. The CID, which initially said that the death was a premeditated murder, sent a team of government analysts to search Shafter's house 10 days after the death. Prashantha's CID later reported to the court that the team of analysts found several strange items in the house. The items were a piece of wire similar to the one that Shafter had tied to the driver's seat, and 08 plastic handcuffs similar to the plastic zip ties used to strangle Shafter and tie his hands behind his back.
A government analyst who colluded with companies to provide false expert reports in exchange for money was caught in the crossfire last week. In such an era, in the Weligama W15 Hotel shooting case, many in the Shafter family believe that someone from the team of analysts sent by a henchman of the most corrupt IGP Deshabandu Tennakoon in the country, according to the Attorney General, may have planted these devices in Shafter's house.
The CID of another extremely corrupt police officer, SSP Hemal Prishantha, who ignored the discovery of these devices in Shafter's house and many important pieces of evidence related to the murder, made a ridiculous attempt to present the facts to the court as a suicide by adding the second "cyanide" court report of Judicial Medical Officer Ruhul Haque.
In addition, in addition to the 1.4 billion that Shafter gave to Brian Thomas, Hemal Prishantha's CID team tried to convince the court that Shafter's death was a suicide by presenting evidence that he was distressed by the billions of losses he had incurred in various businesses.
However, President's Counsel Anuja Premaratne, who represented the rights of the Shafter family, strongly opposed this opinion and requested a full medical board for the autopsy. The request was granted by the court and it was ordered that the body be exhumed and examined before a 5-member expert medical board.
The committee, which consists of 5 of the most senior forensic medical officers in Sri Lanka, consists of Professor Asela Mendis (Chairman), Professor B.C.R. Perera, Professor D.H.S. Fernando and two forensic medical officers, Dr Siva Subramaniam and Dr B.R. Ruwanpura. The court ordered the committee to conduct a new investigation to determine the real cause of the death of businessman Dinesh Shafter by exhuming his body.
Later, on May 18, 2023, as per the request made by the committee, Shafter's body was exhumed on May 25, 2023 and taken to the Karapitiya Hospital in Galle. There, the four committee members, except for the forensic medical officer Dr. B.R. Ruwanpura, were of the opinion that Dinesh Shafter had died due to external pressure applied to his face and neck by an outside party.
The four of them were of the opinion that the cyanide in his body was not sufficient to kill a person. Therefore, his death was ruled a homicide. However, committee member Dr Ruwanpura was of the opinion that it was likely that Shafter had committed a complex suicide.
However, based on the majority decision of the medical committee, Colombo Additional Magistrate Rajindra Jayasuriya ruled Shafter's death a homicide on November 1, 2023 and ordered the police to arrest the suspects.
The police and forensic medical officers involved in the investigation of crimes in Sri Lanka are not unfamiliar with the past, where evidence of many crimes in the past has been suppressed or erased due to large bribes or other reasons.
The murder of famous rugby player Wasim Thajudeen is a good example of this. Former Colombo forensic medical officer Dr Ananda Samarasekera, who mysteriously died of a heart attack after the forensic evidence of Thajudeen's murder disappeared, and former Western Province Senior DIG Anura Senanayake, who mysteriously died of cancer, are good examples of this.
But when the CID presented evidence before the court that Shafter committed suicide, the CID investigators were unable to explain to the court the dilemma of how a man who had his hands tied behind his back, tied tightly to the seat of his car, and strangled with a plastic cable could ingest cyanide, and how he himself could have tied his hands behind his back, tied tightly to the driver's seat of his car, and miraculously strangled himself with a plastic tape without anyone's help.
Instead, they tried to present a 'cyanide theory' with the help of another corrupt forensic medical officer and get the court's verdict as they wanted.
The former minister in charge of the police was Tiran Alles. The relationship between Tiran and Deshabandu is now being questioned before the court. He is also the owner of the Ceylon News Papers. Surprisingly, before the court was first presented with evidence that Dinesh Shafter’s murder was a suicide, Tiran Alles’ newspapers told the country. Deshabandu’s protege, SSP Hemal Prishantha, who was the head of the CID’s gang robbery and murder department, leaked this information through Tiran’s newspapers.
While there is clear evidence that Shafter’s death was a murder, the CID suddenly tried to make his death a suicide. Whether it was due to influence from anyone or a bribe of crores, the current government’s CID Director, Shani Abeysekara can reveal through a new investigation whether he is interested in doing so.
The fact that the local police and the Criminal Investigation Department, which are skilled enough to detect any murder or crime committed by the underworld or any other external party within 3 days, are unable to reveal who Shafter's murderer and those behind him are shows that Shafter's death was not committed by an external party.
It is very clear that the contract to remove Shafter was taken by a party that is well-versed in committing such murders and suppressing evidence, but the fact that the current police are also working to protect the criminals is a slap in the face to the current President.
Also, it seems that IGP Priyantha Weerasuriya, who is said to be the fair IGP of Anura's government, and Shani Abeysekara's CID subordinate under him have no interest in finding out why Deshabandu's CID tried to turn a murder into a suicide, instead of targeting the real murderers.
Before he became President, Anura Dissanayake used to say on political platforms that politicians are behind every unsolved crime. Now the President cannot say that this statement does not apply to Shafter’s murder.
On the day the court ruled that Shafter’s death was murder, Dinesh Shafter’s father Chandra Shafter had told the media that justice had finally been served for Dinesh’s soul, but now everything rests with the party that enforces the law. However, the fact that the parties who took money from him have joined forces with other powerful parties and are trying to show the world that his son committed suicide is a “heinous crime,” said Chandra Shafter, Chairman of Janashakthi Insurance Company.
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by (2025-12-15 16:22:33)
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