Did Sunil Watagala Accuse Rajapaksas in Darshana Handungoda’s Death?

දිනපතා සත්‍ය කරුණු දැන ගැනීමට අපගේ WhatsApp චැනලයට මෙතනින් එකතුවන්න.

Misleading social media posts have been circulated in connection with the death of senior journalist Darshana Handungoda. This report examines one such misleading post.

Social Media Posts

A photograph, purportedly from a newspaper, was shared on multiple social media platforms. It appeared to show a Mawbima news article quoting Deputy Minister of Public Security Sunil Watagala, stating that “The Rajapaksa regime killed Darshana Handungoda.”

Facebook | Archived Link

These posts were shared widely on Facebook in the following manner.

Fact Check

There is no report regarding this in the Mawbima newspaper.

We checked the January 11^th publication of the Mawbima newspaper to see if the Deputy Minister of Public Security, Attorney-at-Law Sunil Watagala, had made such a statement to the press. However, we did not find any such news item published. 

Therefore, we inquired from the editor of the Mawbima newspaper about this, and he confirmed that no such article related to Deputy Minister Watagala was published in the Mawbima newspaper on January 11th. 

We also inquired further about this from journalist Anuradha Herath, the person who allegedly conducted this interview, and she confirmed that no such interview was conducted with Sunil Watagala, nor was any such article published.

No other media reports in which Watagala was quoted related to similar remarks!

We checked whether Sunil Watagala had made a statement in this manner regarding the death of Darshana Handungoda to any other media outlet or on any political platform, but we found that the Minister had not made such a statement.

The Deputy Minister’s Media Division

Furthermore, Sunil Watagala’s Media Coordinator stated that Sunil Watagala had never made any statement regarding the death of Darshana Handungoda involving the Rajapaksa family, and that the photo published in the newspaper was a fake photo edit.

Photo Edit using a ‘Mawbima’ news page from November 2025!

Accordingly, we investigated this further and found an interview published in the ‘Mawbima’ newspaper on November 23, 2025, featuring Sunil Watagala with the same layout. Below is a comparison of that news page and the version that went viral on social media.

Darshana Handungoda passed away while receiving treatment at the hospital on January 10th.

Veteran journalist Darshana Handungoda, the host of the ‘SL Deshaya’ YouTube channel, passed away on the 10th. The media had reported that family sources had stated that he had been ill for some time and was undergoing treatment at the Colombo National Hospital. He was 55 years old at the time of his passing. Similarly, Darshana Handungoda himself had announced his illness on his YouTube channel about five months ago. 

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Conclusion 

Our investigation found that the viral posts claiming that Deputy Minister of Public Security Sunil Watagala told the Mawbima newspaper that “Darshana Handungoda was killed by the Rajapaksas” are false. No such news item was published in the Mawbima newspaper, and the circulating image is a digitally edited version using an old interview featuring the Deputy Minister.