Sampath Manamperi granted bail in Middeniya live-grenade case
What happened?
On 11 September 2026, the Tangalle High Court granted Sampath Manamperi - a former SLPP local government candidate whose party membership was suspended in September 2025 - bail in the Middeniya weapons and live-grenade matter, on a cash bail of Rs.10,000 and two sureties of Rs.250,000 each. He had been remanded in that matter since September 2025 after police said they recovered a pistol, ammunition, and a hand grenade linked to him. Sampath separately faces a 2009 robbery indictment, an ongoing Middeniya methamphetamine investigation, a firearm-supply investigation into the killing of Aruna 'Meegasare Kajja' Widanagamage and his two children, and an illegal-assets investigation, none of which this bail order resolves.
What changed?
This is the first Nadu Update recorded for Sampath Manamperi. Nadu's records also cover a prior, unrelated 2013 cannabis-trafficking conviction against him (Monaragala High Court, confirmed by a 2024 Supreme Court judgment in a related vehicle-confiscation appeal). Today's development narrows to the bail decision in the weapons/grenade matter specifically - his overall custody status across his other matters has not been reverified and should not be assumed to have changed.
What happens next?
No confirmed next step yet. No further scheduled hearing in this specific matter has been located.
The case
People involved
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