Unauthorized articles and social media posts are often published with misleading, false, or fabricated information, targeting public figures. Below is an investigation we conducted to find the accuracy of a purported computer theft that happened over a decade ago, linking to the Deputy Minister of Digital Economy.
Social Media Posts
Viral social media posts claim that current Deputy Minister of Digital Economy, Mr Eranga Weerarathne, stole some CDs, DVDs and a laptop of the then Chancellor of the School of Computing at the University of Colombo (UCSC) back in 2012 and that a case was filed against him in the Colombo Fort Magistrate Court.
According to these reports, the complainant is Gihan Wickramanayake, the then Chancellor of the UCSC, and the two suspects were Eranga Weerarathne and Sumith Bandula Gamage, who worked as software engineers attached to the director’s unit.
The full narrative described in these claims is given below:
“Eranga Weerarathne, the Deputy Minister of Digital Economy who was appointed through the National List of Anura, is accused of stealing computer data.
Mr Eranga was accused of stealing Prof. Gihan Wickramanayake’s laptop, who was then Chancellor of the School of Computing at the University of Colombo. In this regard, a case has been filed against him in Colombo Fort Magistrate Court.
The person taking over the country’s digital sector has increased the risk of selling the data collected by the government and the people.”
Here is how the same claim was shared on ‘X’.
Here’s how we investigated these claims.
Fact Check
We first checked whether the mainstream media had reported on this matter and found that none of the mainstream media publications had reported.
However, a keyword search led to a report published in Gossip Lanka regarding such an incident. Also, it could be noticed that it was an article published in 2012 | Archived Link; possibly the trigger point for viral social media claims.
However, this has not been reported by any mainstream media!
Accordingly, to find out whether such a theft took place at the University of Colombo School of Computing, we searched the keyword of Gihan Wickramanayake, and there we found out that Prof. Gihan Wickramanayake had passed away in 2018 and that he was the director of the UCSC, not the Chancellor as claimed. | Archived Link.
However, even when he was the director at UCSC, there was no official news report that his laptop was stolen from the department or that any other sensitive information had been stolen from the university by Eranga Weeraratne.
Furthermore, it is doubtful that if such a theft had occurred, the mainstream media should have reported that, but it was reported only on a Gossip website. Also, it is stated only as a case filed in the Colombo Fort Magistrate Court, and there is no mention of the arrest of the suspects or the responsible police officer, which further casts doubts about the authenticity of the narrative.
Current Director of the University of Colombo, School of Computing.
We contacted Dr D. A. S. Athukorala, the new director of the University of Colombo School of Computing, regarding the purported computer theft in 2012.
After taking a couple of days to investigate the claim, he stated that there was no report of theft of computers in the School of Computing and that no complaint was made to the police. Additionally, he highlighted that the head of UCSC is the Director, that there is no chancellor for the institute, and that Prof. Gihan Wickramanayake was the Director during the said period.
However, even when Mr. Gihan Wickramanayake was the director, there was no report of the theft of any of the computers, CDs, etc.
Furthermore, Dr D. A. S. Athukorala also clarified that the claims are absolutely baseless as the accused, Eranga Weerarathne and Sumith Bandula, never worked as software engineers at the UCSC.
The Deputy Minister of Digital Economy also denied these accusations!
Denying these accusations, the advisor of the Deputy Minister of Digital Economy, Eranga Weerarathne, stated that the story is completely fabricated without any factual basis. He points out that the Minister had completed his degree at the University of Moratuwa and has never worked at the UCSC in any capacity.
We further tried to find any possible reasons as to why such fabricated news was published back in 2012, and based on the opinions we gathered from some professionals from the IT industry, one can assume that these fabrications could have been made by competitors who were against the computer software business that Eranga Weerarathne and Sumith Bandula operated.
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Title:Did the Deputy Minister of Digital Economy steal Computers from UCSC?
Written By: Fact Crescendo TeamResult: Misleading
