Resigned Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa fled to India?

Due to the current political and economic crisis of the country, people have been protesting against the Rajapaksa family, with the main protest ground at Galle Face extending to over a month now. Due to the pressure of people's protests, and subsequent events which took place on May 9^th, Mahinda Rajapaksa submitted his resignation from the prime minister position.

With his resignation, a lot of rumors have been spreading about his whereabouts. Among them, were claims which stated that, Mahinda Rajapaksa and his family members left for India, via a helicopter, sponsored by the government of India.

Social Media Posts

A viral WhatsApp message went viral which claimed that “Mahinda Rajapaksa and his entire family fled to India in a helicopter sent by the Indian government…” as seen below.

We detected the related Facebook posts also.

Facebook | Archived

Due to the significant nature of this claim, we decided to do an investigation on this.

Explained

Mainstream media had reported that Former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa left Temple Trees on 10^th May morning. After that, there were many reports circulating on social media, claiming that Mahinda Rajapaksa and his family members were trying to flee to another country. As a result, there were reports of people crowding near the Sri Lankan airports.

Meanwhile, videos of allegedly members of the Mahinda Rajapaksa family, flying from a helicopter were shared on social media. The video was also shared by local and international mainstream media via their social media accounts .

However, after receiving information that former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa was staying at the Eastern Naval Headquarters in Trincomalee, the residents of the area also rallied and protested there in this manner .

In this background, it was reported on social media that the Prime Minister and his family members were leaving for India and that the Indian government had sent a helicopter to aid his departure from Sri Lanka.

However, in response, the Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka had tweeted that they strongly deny these “fake and blatantly false reports, devoid of any truth or substance” as seen below.

High Commission has recently noticed rumours circulating in sections of media & social media that certain political persons and their families have fled to India.
These are fake and blatantly false reports,devoid of any truth or substance.High Commission strongly denies them.
— India in Sri Lanka (@IndiainSL) May 10, 2022

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And defense secretary Kamal Gunarathna said that former prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksha is currently staying at Trincomalee Navy camp and that he would be given adequate security before being transported to a preferred location.

Daily Mirror | Archived

However, former Minister Namal Rajapaksa, the elder son of former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa had told the AFP news agency on May 10 that Mahinda Rajapaksa was in a safe place and would not leave the country. International reports about it can be reached from here and here .