A journalist and cartoonist
Prageeth Ranjan Bandara Eknaligoda wrote political commentary and drew cartoons for the opposition-aligned Lanka E-news website. His work criticized powerful political figures during the final years of Sri Lanka's civil war and the election period that followed. He was also a husband and father. His wife, Sandya Eknaligoda, has spent more than sixteen years seeking an official account of what happened to him.
On January 24, 2010, Eknaligoda left work and did not return home. The date was two days before a closely contested presidential election. Early appeals identified him as missing and at risk; later investigations treated the event as an alleged abduction and enforced disappearance.
Denial, uncertainty and a stalled inquiry
For years, official statements did not establish his whereabouts. Claims that he had left the country were not substantiated by a recovery, direct contact or a credible public record. His family rejected them and continued to demand an effective criminal investigation.
The United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances registered the case in February 2010. Rights organizations also documented harassment directed at Sandya during her campaign for truth. Those acts are part of the institutional context, but they do not establish who abducted her husband.
The 2015 investigation
A new police investigation in 2015 questioned and detained soldiers, former soldiers and military-intelligence personnel. Reuters reported that eleven people, most with military links, had been detained as the inquiry widened. Amnesty International later summarized investigators' allegation that Eknaligoda was taken to an army camp at Giritale after his abduction.
That route is a prosecution theory supported by investigative material, not a final judicial finding. The archive therefore attributes it to the investigation. No remains have been recovered, and the exact circumstances of Eknaligoda's disappearance and possible death have not been proven at trial.
Nine officers indicted
In November 2019, Sri Lanka's attorney general indicted nine army intelligence officers before a three-judge Colombo High Court Trial-at-Bar. A 2021 communication by United Nations experts recorded seventeen charges, including abduction and conspiracy to murder. The defendants are presumed innocent unless and until convicted.
The trial encountered repeated delays and institutional pressure. A presidential commission appointed in 2020 made recommendations affecting cases involving security personnel, while witnesses and investigators faced controversy and alleged intimidation. These developments explain the long procedural history; they do not decide the facts.
The proceedings in 2024–2026
Reporters Without Borders reported that the case returned for a hearing in December 2024 and urged a transparent, impartial process. The Committee to Protect Journalists described it as the only ongoing prosecution concerning a grave crime against a journalist in Sri Lanka at that time. By January 2025, Sandya said the Trial-at-Bar was examining circumstantial evidence and telephone records.
The latest specific court development located for this publication occurred on July 24, 2026. A three-judge Colombo High Court bench allowed a key witness to testify again after he said an earlier account had been extracted under duress. That ruling concerns how evidence will be heard. It is not a verdict, and it does not permit an editorial conclusion about any defendant's guilt.
Where the case stands
Eknaligoda's fate and whereabouts remain unknown. Nine officers face serious accusations, and a criminal court is hearing evidence, but the case has not produced a reported conviction. The correct description is therefore an ongoing enforced-disappearance prosecution, not a solved murder.
This file is distinct from Sri Lanka's other published case, the 2009 assassination of editor Lasantha Wickrematunge. Both concern crimes against journalists, but they involve different victims, dates, evidence and proceedings.
Questions that remain
- What happened to Prageeth Eknaligoda after he left work on January 24, 2010?
- Where is he now, or where are his remains?
- How will the Trial-at-Bar assess the disputed witness testimony and phone evidence?
- Will the proceedings identify and adjudicate every participant and any command responsibility?