Rajapaksha Durayalage Nishantha Wijesiri v. Hon. Attorney General – CA HCC/0220/2019-2022

In Attorney General (on behalf of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka) v. Rajapaksha Durayalage Nishantha Wijesiri, the court examined the sufficiency of evidence supporting a conviction for attempted murder involving a firearm. It was determined that alleged inconsistencies in prosecution witness statements and the defence’s alternate explanation (that the injury resulted from a club rather than a firearm) did not undermine the credibility of the prosecution case. The holding reaffirmed the principle that appellate intervention is unwarranted unless there is clear misdirection or error in evidence evaluation by the trial court. Reliance was placed on medical and forensic findings, which corroborated the prosecution’s narrative. The decision reinforces the standard that mere min