Since 29th January, various social media posts have been shared stating that Dan Priyasad, who was engaged in various controversial political affairs, has died. Since there are multiple instances where much news is being shared about the deaths of famous people, we decided to do an investigation regarding this.
Social Media Posts
A social media post was circulated with the caption “an accident has occurred” (“අනතුරක් වෙලාලු”).
Another post was shared with some photos relating to a car accident along with the caption, “Dan Priyasad died in a car accident”.
Many more social media posts were circulated informing about his death.
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Is Dan Priyasad dead, as shown in the social media posts? We inquired about it in this way.
Fact Check
Dan Priyasad, a social media activist, was widely known to the public after he attacked the peaceful struggle on May 9th, 2022.
Dan Priyasad was named as the 6th suspect in the 2022 Galle Face protest attack case. He was remanded in custody for some time and later released on bail under several conditions, including a ban on foreign travel.
Even after his release, he was active in various controversial political affairs. However, as the mentioned social media posts state, we checked whether Dan Priyasad, who is currently abroad, is dead.
If Dan Priyasad had died, it would have been published in the mainstream media of Sri Lanka, as he was a controversial figure. But until the 29th, nothing was reported on that in any mainstream media.
So, we checked the photo of the car accident, which was posted on social media. Accordingly, it became clear to us that the photo was related to a car accident which took place in Dubai 7 years ago in 2018, where a 16-year-old girl died.
Police Media Division
We inquired about this from the police media division, and they stated that they have not yet received any information about the death of Dan Priyasad. They also mentioned that they’ll investigate whether such an incident occurred.
Acquaintances of Dan Priyasad
We called Dan Priyasad’s telephone number but could not reach anyone. We also sent text messages to that number through WhatsApp, and even though they were delivered to him, he did not respond.
We also called the phone numbers of “Ape Jana Bala Pakshaya,” of which Dan Priyasad was a member, but they also mentioned that they would confirm that and inform us. When we reached them again, there was no response to those phone calls.
We also contacted a close relative of Dan Priyasad, but he, too, has not received any confirmed information about his death.
Also, videos were shared on his Facebook account recently, but we could not see anyone tagging him or posting any social media posts showing their condolences.
Accordingly, no confirmed information about Dan Priyasad’s death has been received so far. However, we are still looking into the matter and hope to update this article as soon as we have accurate information.
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