Thiththagalle Anandasiri Thera in videos posted on social media. Photograph: Newswire
A Sinhala Buddhist monk accompanying the march demanding the release of the extremist monk Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara has said he "assumed" a man injured in a roadside assault was a supporter of the march, after Sri Lankan police rejected his claim that the man had been attacked by people linked to the ruling National People's Power (NPP).
In a video posted on social media, Thiththagalle Anandasiri had alleged that individuals linked to the NPP attacked a man who had been assisting the "Justice for the Robe" march from Kandy to Colombo, and called on the Sri Lankan president Anura Kumara Dissanayake and the Inspector General of Police to intervene.
Sri Lankan police said the incident took place on 14 October near the Veediyawatta Devalaya in the Weeragula police area and arose from a traffic dispute between a man travelling in a lorry and a motorcyclist, during which the lorry passenger was struck with a helmet. The injured man told investigators he had been travelling on personal business and had no connection to the march, according to the police statement .
He was admitted to Wathupitiwala Base Hospital, while the motorcyclist was admitted to Gampaha Hospital.
Police accused the monk of misleading the public by presenting the incident as a deliberate attack on a supporter of the march, said Weeragula police would report the facts to court, and warned that legal action would be taken against those spreading false or unverified information capable of causing public unrest.
In a second video, Anandasiri Thera said he had assumed the man was a supporter because the assault took place in front of protesters on the march. He did not repeat the allegation against the NPP.
Instead, he questioned why police officers deployed along the route had failed to intervene, and said he had cleaned the bleeding man's wounds and arranged for an ambulance to take him to hospital. He said members of the group had noted the registration number of the motorcycle involved and passed it to police.
The monk accused the police of focusing on his alleged spreading of misinformation rather than the response of its officers, and suggested the authorities had acted only after his video drew public attention.
The march for Gnanasara on its fifth day. Photograph: Ada Derana
The 121km march set out from the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic in Kandy on 10 October and passed through Kadugannawa, Kegalle, Warakapola, Nittambuwa and Kadawatha. On 15 October it reached the area of the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo, where police were deployed in large numbers and Galle Road was closed.
Monks at a police barricade near the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo on Thursday. Photograph: Ada Derana
Gnanasara was returned to prison this month after the Supreme Court voided the 2019 presidential pardon granted to him by Maithripala Sirisena. He is serving the remainder of a six-year sentence for contempt of court, imposed in 2018 after he disrupted proceedings in the case over the disappearance of the cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda and intimidated his wife, Sandya. A row erupted when he was produced in court in prison clothing rather than his robes.
Gnanasara, in prison clothing, is escorted by prison officers at the Colombo High Court on 6 October. Photograph: Ada Derana
The Bodu Bala Sena general secretary has spent more than a decade inciting hatred against Muslims and Tamils. He warned of a "river of blood" if Tamils pursue self-determination, addressed the rally that preceded the 2014 anti-Muslim riots in Aluthgama and later threatened a "second Aluthgama" . In January 2025 he was sentenced to nine months in prison for defaming Islam.
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