Peduru Arachchige Ashokalal Pathirane and other vs The Attorney General – CA HCC/0094/0095/2016-2022

In the case between the Accused-Appellants Peduru Arachchige Ashokalal Pathirane and Wickramasinghe Mudiyanselage Biyo Kumari Wickramasinghe and the Respondent, the Attorney General’s Department, the court addressed whether the evidentiary basis, particularly a dying declaration and supporting circumstantial evidence, sufficed for sustaining a murder conviction. The holding determined that these materials—marked by inherent weaknesses such as absence of oath and lack of cross-examination, as well as circumstances indicating a sudden fight—did not meet the threshold for murder, but instead supported conviction for culpable homicide not amounting to murder under section 297 of the Penal Code. The decision emphasized that, in cases involving suspicion of premeditated violence, the alternative