The Colombo High Court sentenced V. Varadaraja to 290-years and C.I. Ragupathy to 300-years rigorous imprisonment to be served in 30-years over the 1999 Town Hall bomb blast in which 22 people were killed in an assassination attempt against former President Chandrika Kumaratunga at an election rally.
The verdict was given when the case was taken up for hearing before Judge Padmini Ranawaka on Wednesday (30).
However, accused Wasanthi Ragupathy has been acquitted due to lack of evidence, Ada Derana reporter said. The Attorney General had indicted the accused on 190 charges.
A suicide bomber detonated the bomb at approximately 10 p.m. near a barrier that separated a crowd of reporters from Kumaratunga and a car that had arrived to pick her up on December 18, 1999. The blast also killed journalist Indika Pathinivasan and Anura Priyantha of the Independent Television Network, both camera assistants.
