Nine people including former SLPP Ratnapura Pradeshiya Sabha (PS) Chairman Sudath Dissanayake and PS member Ranawaka Kaluarachchi were sentenced to rigorous imprisonment after they were found guilty of burning down the houses of UNP members, vandalizing a shop and causing damages amounting to Rs.50,000 in 1997 based on the Nalanda Ellawala murder.

The ruling was announced yesterday (17) when the case was taken up in the Ratnapura High Court.An appeal petition filed by seven of the defendants in the Supreme Court was dismissed earlier.

Accordingly, seven people including Dissanayake and Kaluarachchi were sentenced to 5 and a half years of rigorous imprisonment while two others were sentenced to 7 and a half years of rigorous imprisonment.