The Ganemulla Sanjeewa case has evolved into one of the most significant legal sagas in modern Sri Lanka. The shocking incident of a suspect being shot dead inside a courtroom cage has raised serious questions about the country’s judicial and police security systems, though some speculate that the very act was orchestrated to provoke such scrutiny. The incident has certainly triggered tensions between the two institutions.
Ganemulla Sanjeewa was arrested at the Katunayake International Airport on September 13, 2023, upon arrival from Nepal using a forged passport.
On February 19, 2025, while being produced before the Puthukadai Magistrate’s Court, he was shot dead inside the courtroom. The shooter was arrested later that same day, while the alleged mastermind Ishara Sewwandi went into hiding.
As investigations unfolded, on August 28, 2025, arrests were made in Indonesia, including that of Kehalpaththara Padme and others, broadening the inquiry into ongoing and planned criminal operations in the country.
Amid a series of drug factory raids and other related crackdowns, rumors began circulating about Sewwandi’s whereabouts:
- That she had fled to India,
- That she had escaped to Africa,
- Or that she had gone to Dubai.
Most of these reports are now believed to have been deliberate diversions.
Finally, on October 14, 2025, Ishara Sewwandi was arrested in Nepal along with several accomplices, including two individuals from Jaffna. One of them, “JK Bhai” (Kennedy Bastiampillai), is alleged to be a member of an underworld criminal network and is believed to have acted as a mediator between Padme and Sewwandi, facilitating her attempted escape.
Reports suggest that Sewwandi possessed a fake passport identifying her as a foreign national, and that another woman resembling her had been used as a decoy. Sources claim that Padme had kept Sewwandi hidden in Nepal, planning to smuggle her into a European country, but the plan fell apart with her arrest.
What began as a single case, the courtroom shooting of Ganemulla Sanjeewa, has now branched into a complex web of investigations, connecting drug networks in the south and underworld operations in the north.
Authorities believe that upcoming probes will likely focus on “JK Bhai” and his links, as well as on the “Nepal Route”, a term now being used by investigators to describe a suspected human and narcotics trafficking corridor.
Interestingly, the case has come full circle, from Nepal to Nepal.
When Ganemulla Sanjeewa was arrested, he had arrived from Nepal on a fake passport; now, with Sewwandi’s arrest in Nepal, the saga has returned to where it began.
