Date: 11th August 2026
Case No: HC (TAB) 2972/21
Court: Special Permanent Three-Judge High Court (Trial-at-Bar)
Venue: Special Permanent Three-Judge High Court (Trial-at-Bar), 2nd Floor, MCC Building, Adhikarana Mawatha, Colombo 12.
The case was taken up before the Trial-at-Bar with all accused present, except the 17th accused, who had passed away. The 2nd, 7th, 8th, 10th, 15th, 17th, 18th, and 19th accused were represented by Mr. Kaneel Maddumage, AAL. The 12th and 13th accused were represented by Mr. Ravindu Yasas, AAL. The 20th to 25th accused were represented by Mr. Mayuran Mahalingam AAL under the instructions of Mr. Sanjeewa Ruwanpathirana, AAL. The 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 9th, 11th, 14th, and 16th accused appeared in person.
The witness PW 1852 Niroshini (Police Officer) testified regarding the statement that she recorded from Fathima Shifka, the wife of Mohammed Inshaf Ahmad, who carried out the Cinnamon Grand Hotel blast on April 21, 2019. She informed the court that prior to the blast, Shifka had been handed two pen drives by her husband. The first pen drive had already been marked as P-910, while the second pen drive was marked as P-2032, and the wife’s statement was marked as P-2031. There was no cross-examination for this witness.
The witness PW 1987 Nilmini Mendes (Woman Chief Inspector, formerly CID) detailed her investigation and recovery operations following the 2019 attacks. On May 3, 2019, she visited the residence of the 16th accused, Mohammed Harris, in Narammala, where she recorded a statement from his wife and seized productions including three passports, Nokia phone, a SIM card, a CD, and other documents while observing evidence of burnt materials in the ashes. She then proceeded to Sithum Villa where the 2nd accused was arrested, verifying his two-day stay through the guest register and CCTV footage. Following this, she visited Issadeen Mohammed Yusuf, the individual who supplied explosives such as gelatin, detonators, and safety fuses to Harris, and properly logged these items into the production register. She also went to Vanses Laous’s house, recorded a statement, and recovered further explosives and money which were duly registered and the suspects were detained at Girihulla Police.
On May 4, 2019, she visited Nimal Jayakody’s house. On May 5, 2019, she inspected Salim Halim’s explosives storage at Malkaduwa Heraliyawa, visited Salim Textile to meet the manager and note Halim’s explosives sales license, and arrested Mohammed Hussain, from whom Harris had originally obtained explosives. Subsequently, she traveled to Levalle in Kandy based on Harris’s disclosures regarding weapon training and lecture locations, observing that the 22nd accused, Mohammed Nafli, had made a reservation there. Productions P-2033 to P-2035—were marked which representing three passports and a bank book belonging to the 16th accused.
During cross-examination by Mr. Sanjeev Ruwan Pathirana, counsel for the 22nd accused Mohammed Nafli, it was established that the witness arrested Nafli at Pannala and recorded his statement due to suspected connections to the blast.
During cross-examination by the 4th accused, the witness acknowledged that a disciplinary inquiry had been held against her in the CID but maintained it was unrelated to the current matter, and denied taking suspicious items into custody at Situmbula Villa. She denied defense suggestions that Harris never gave a statement, never revealed the Leewella location, and was never brought there. She confirmed that on June 6, 2019, she was at the CID and recorded a statement at 11:00 a.m. from Ishan Indrajith, the OIC of Nuwara Eliya Police, while denying the suggestion that Mohammed Nafli had reserved the Leewella location merely as a broker. Under cross-examination by the 16th accused, she denied allegations that Harris was taken to various places without his consent, never named anyone, and was never brought to Leewella. During re-examination, she clarified that Harris’s house is located near the Situmbula Villa Hotel, concluding her re-examination.
The witness PW 1897, Sujeewa Nalaka (ASP) who served as the OIC of Nawalapitiya Police in 2019, testified that on April 27, 2019, he received intelligence from the Gampola Crime Division regarding M. N. Naflan’s connection to the blast. Leading a team, he arrested Naflan at his home and proceeded to his uncle Abdul Jabbar’s house. Following Jabbar’s instructions, they unlocked his shop and arrested M. I. Sadik Abdullah and M. I. Shahid Abdul Haq, recovering a backpack, two phones, a purse, a Commercial Bank card, an NDB Bank card, and a curfew license dated April 21, 2019, issued in the name of Yasasthi Silva. The debit card, curfew license, and purse were shown and marked through previous witness Yasasthi Silva.
During cross-examination by the 4th accused, Nalaka denied allegations that handcuffs were omitted during the arrest, that the 4th accused’s trouser and t-shirt was removed to tie his hands and cover his eyes, or that suspects were left in their underwears due to viral media images. While the handover of suspects and items to the CID was logged, he noted that specific recovery details omitted from the Nawalapitiya Police Information Books (IBs) were documented in the Gampola IBs, explaining that initial confusion arose because the names of the two accused appeared identical. He denied suggestions that school bags are used for blasts since the such back pack look like a school bag. The backpack was marked as 5D2. He further denied suggestions that he was lying, or that he gave contradictory evidence. Cross-examination by the 5th accused similarly resulted in denials regarding allegations of fabricated arrest.
The witness PW 1641, Yasantha Jayasinghe (Inspector of Police) testified online via video link from Bangkok regarding phone data analysis. He explained that his analysis mapped connections between the accused across specific dates and verified the true users of telephone numbers by cross-referencing calls to relatives. Subscriber information, tower reports, and data analysis reports for the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 9th, 12th, 13th, and 14th, 20th-25th accused were marked as productions P-2039 to P-2055.
Additionally, hard copies in Tamil were marked as P-2056 and P-2057, and photographs of Hastoon were marked as P-2058 to P-2061 from hard disk P-1651A.
During cross-examination by Mr. Niroshan Siriwardena, counsel for the 12th and 13th accused, the witness confirmed that sending data reports to the Government Analyst was outside his duties, and clarified that call reports did not contain text messages. Cross-examined by Mrs. Sanjeewa Ruwanpathirana for the 20th to 25th accused, he did not hold an official position, formal qualification, or specialized knowledge as a data analyst, though he denied lacking the ability to provide evidence based on his analysis. Under cross-examination by the 9th accused, he acknowledged that SIM cards, person-to-person calls, WhatsApp, and Threema software are not legally prohibited in Sri Lanka, and agreed that tower data reports alone cannot definitively place a registered SIM owner at a specific tower location; meanwhile, the 9th accused marked production P-2058 as 9D2(A). Under cross-examination by the 4th accused, witness denied testifying from unstudied reports, reiterated that tower data indicates phone locations rather than individuals, and noted uncertainty regarding whether he analyzed 300 phones. He denied suggestions that he relied on unsigned documents lacking analysis. Finally, under cross-examination by the 3rd accused, he clarified he was not a Dialog company agent, confirmed that production P-2039 was prepared by Dialog rather than himself, and noted that the report did not contain GPS location codes.
Following re-examination, proceedings for the day concluded at 10:15 p.m., with the next court date scheduled for August 12, 2026, at 10:00 a.m.
