By Ruwan Weerakoon
(Lanka-e-News -17 Oct 2026,10.00 P.M.) The Asgiriya Mahanayake Thero and the Asgiriya Chapter, together with other senior members of the Maha Sangha, are calling for the release of Ven. Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thero. Their reason is that he is a Buddhist monk.
The Mahanayake Theros of the Asgiriya, Malwatta, Amarapura and Ramanna Nikayas have not explained why he should keep the robe. Nor have they said why they stay silent about the 63 Buddhist monks who, according to figures cited in this investigation, are serving prison terms. No Mahanayake Thero has demanded their release. The difference in treatment looks political, not religious.
What the court record shows
2000. In Colombo Traffic Court Case No. 6315/2000, Gnanasara Thero faced nine charges after a collision on 14 April 2000 in which two people were injured. The charges included drunk driving, reckless driving and driving without a valid licence. On 20 September 2000, he pleaded guilty to all nine and was fined Rs. 12,000.
2016. At the Homagama Magistrate's Court hearing into the disappearance of journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda, he addressed the open court without permission, insulted Senior State Counsel Dileepa Peiris and intimidated Sandya Eknaligoda. Police arrested him the same day.
2018. Homagama Magistrate Udesh Ranatunga convicted him of criminal intimidation against Sandya Eknaligoda, and he was sentenced to six months of rigorous imprisonment and ordered to pay Rs. 50,000 in compensation. In August 2018, the Court of Appeal convicted him on four counts of contempt of court. Concurrent sentences produced an effective six years of rigorous imprisonment, and he was taken to Welikada.
2019. President Maithripala Sirisena pardoned him on 23 May, after about nine months in prison. The pardon came days after anti-Muslim violence that followed the Easter attacks, and after intense lobbying by senior clergy. A prison report attached to the file shows his term would otherwise have run until 28 July 2022.
2024. On 28 March, Colombo High Court Judge Aditya Patabendige sentenced him to four years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine over the 2016 Kuragala statement, ruling that he intentionally harmed national and religious harmony. The Court of Appeal later granted bail pending a revision petition.
2025 and 2026. The Colombo Magistrate's Court sentenced him on 9 January 2025 to nine months and a fine for insulting Islam at a July 2016 media conference in Kirulapana. On 23 June 2026, Colombo High Court Judge Manjula Tilakaratne rejected his appeal and upheld that sentence.
Separately, a Bambalapitiya housing dispute ended with the Additional Magistrate ordering him and two others, on 12 September 2024, to hand back a property valued at over Rs. 100 million. In June 2026, his side told the High Court it would vacate it.
A monk is bound by the Vinaya, and the Mahanayake Theros hold the authority to act when it is broken. The questions are simple.
Is any Buddhist monk secretly permitted to consume liquor? If the answer is no, a monk who pleaded guilty to drunk driving broke the discipline he preaches to laypeople. Is a monk who has been convicted of intimidating the wife of a disappeared journalist, of contempt of court and of hate speech, a monk who upholds the Dhamma? And why has no disciplinary action been taken in all these years?
The media, on behalf of the public, is entitled to ask these questions of the Maha Sangha.
Gnanasara Thero first drew wide attention in June 2012 after a row at the Southern Expressway, when videos circulated of him abusing Muslims. That year he became co-founder and General Secretary of the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS). Political analysts have said that the incident marked the first time outside forces used him to stir anti-Muslim sentiment.
A retired military intelligence officer told this investigation that he was among those who first noticed the monk, and that he recorded footage of him speaking. The officer says that footage was shown to his superior, then Intelligence chief Major General Kapila Hendavitharana, and that it reached the then Defence Secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa. According to the officer, those who watched it were struck by the monk's personality and voice. The officer alleges that Rajapaksa tasked the then Terrorism Investigation Division DIG, Chandra Wakista, with bringing him to the Defence Secretary's office, and that this was the first meeting that led to the Bodu Bala Sena. These claims could not be independently verified.
The same sources allege that the BBS's anti-Muslim campaign was funded from a secret fund of the Defence Ministry. The record does show Rajapaksa attending the opening of a BBS-affiliated training centre in Meth Sevana, Galle, in March 2013, and political observers and minority communities have long perceived state patronage. In October 2021, as President, he appointed Gnanasara Thero chairman of the 13-member "One Country, One Law" Presidential Task Force, a move that drew public, political and international criticism.
The question this investigation puts to the Maha Sangha is who keeps feeding the campaign. One name is cited by those close to events: Chandra Wakista, a former DIG of the TID and the SIS, who served as a member of the Bribery Commission during the Gotabaya Rajapaksa period and now chairs the All Ceylon Buddhist Congress.
Sources allege that, during that period, Wakista regularly arranged for Mahanayake Theros and leading monks to be brought to meetings with the President's office and supplied temples with what they needed. Television coverage of those years, they say, showed weekly schedules for such meetings. They also allege that, as a Bribery Commission member, he did not sign a number of indictments and influenced investigations. These are allegations, and Wakista has been invited to respond.
A matter of record concerns Wakista's earlier career. After the February 1988 assassination of Vijaya Kumaratunga, suspects including the alleged gunman Lionel Ranasinghe, alias Gamini, were arrested, and the handling and later disappearance or escape of key suspects in custody became controversial. A Presidential Commission looked into the matter, and a case was filed in the Colombo Fort Magistrate's Court against Wakista, then an ASP, and the then CID Director, Chandrasena Jayawardena, over the custody and disappearance or release of suspects.
The All Ceylon Buddhist Congress is an influential organisation. Its members must decide whether it is well served by its present leadership.
Others named in the monk's circle, including Wimal Weerawansa and Udaya Gammanpila, are described in this investigation's sources as having practised politics with public funds alongside him. These claims are also attributed and open to reply.
The Supreme Court has since voided the 2019 pardon, and the six-year sentence has taken effect. Yet the calls from senior clergy for his release continue.
The Mahanayake Theros have a simple question to answer. If this record is not enough to warrant action under the Vinaya, what would be? And why is that standard applied to Gnanasara Thero and to no other monk in prison?
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by (2026-10-17 17:41:41)
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