{"id":1280,"date":"2026-05-15T07:32:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T07:32:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/?p=1280"},"modified":"2026-05-15T07:32:39","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T07:32:39","slug":"former-arachchikattuwa-pradeshiya-sabha-chairman-sentenced-to-5%c2%bd-years-in-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/2026\/05\/15\/former-arachchikattuwa-pradeshiya-sabha-chairman-sentenced-to-5%c2%bd-years-in-prison\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Arachchikattuwa Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman Sentenced to 5\u00bd Years in Prison"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The former Chairman of the Arachchikattuwa Pradeshiya Sabha, Jagath Samantha, has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison after being found guilty in connection with the assault on the Arachchikattuwa Divisional Secretary.<\/p>\n<p>The judgment was delivered today (15) by the Chilaw High Court.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the prison sentence, the court also ordered him to pay compensation of Rs. 1 million to the assaulted Divisional Secretary.<\/p>\n<p>The court further stated that if the compensation amount is not paid, he will have to serve an additional 24 months of imprisonment.<\/p>\n<p>Charges had originally been filed against late State Minister Sanath Nishantha and his brother in relation to the assault incident.<\/p>\n<p>However, since Sanath Nishantha died in a vehicle accident on the Katunayake Expressway on January 25, 2024, only his brother Jagath Samantha appeared before court today.<\/p>\n<p>The verdict was delivered after the court considered the evidence and facts presented during the hearing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The former Chairman of the Arachchikattuwa Pradeshiya Sabha, Jagath Samantha, has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison after being found guilty in connection with the assault on the Arachchikattuwa Divisional Secretary. The judgment was delivered today (15) by the Chilaw High Court. In addition to the prison sentence, the court also &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1281,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1280"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1282,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280\/revisions\/1282"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tamilmail.lk\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}