[15] Wickrematunge contested in the 1989 Parliamentary election from a Colombo seat with the Sri Lanka Freedom Party[16] and then became the private secretary to the world's first female prime minister, Sirimavo Bandaranaike.

[51] In the late eighties, Lasantha Wickrematunge while working for Sirimavo Bandaranaike started a whistleblower column in The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka) using the pseudonym "Suranimala".

[53][54][55][56] Suranimala wrote on issues that were current and was known for his ability to publicize content and documents beyond the control of the government and for publishing intimate details such as what the president was served for dinner.

Wickrematunge condemned and spoke out against the treatment and oppression of the Sri Lankan Tamils and opposed Gotabaya Rajapaksa's war strategies and continually called for a diplomatic solution to the conflict.

[59][6][60][61][62][63][64][65] Wickrematunge investigated corrupt military procurement deals and spoke out strongly for a negotiated settlement to the ethnic conflict and continued to debunk what he saw as "government propaganda" on the war.

[67] Wickrematunge was one of the country's only leading figures to speak out against the Sri Lankan government during the time of war and began to be viewed as "the single biggest stumbling block to all out massacre in the north".

Kumaratunga who had played a leading role in the election supporting Presidential candidate Hector Kobbekaduwa, was wrongfully arrested on false charges and on conspiracy of being a Naxalite and kept in solitary confinement for a period of three months in prison.

[43] Years later after the assault, when the hit men who were subsequently apprehended, Wickrematunge asserted that both he and his wife did not wish for the assailants to be punished and asked his lawyer to drop any charges.

[87] On 5 September 2000, Lasantha Wickrematunge was found guilty of criminally defaming Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga in a 1995 article in The Sunday Leader.

Wickrematunge addressed the media and a large gathering of supporters outside the premises of The Sunday Leader and stated that he will not seek safe passage overseas and will face arrest and all political oppression levelled against him and "stand unbowed and unafraid".

[112] After Wickrematunge's assassination in 2009, an ally of Rajapaksa said that "It was Lasantha, and Maithripala Sirisena who worked hard to make him Prime Minister in 2004, when President Kumaratunga tried to give it to Lakshman Kadirgamar.

[113] In August 2007, The Sunday Leader reported on a military contract involving the purchase of Mikoyan MiG-27 Ukrainian fighter aircraft between Gotabaya Rajapaksa, his cousin Udayanga Weeratunga and the Sri Lanka Air Force.

[126] Wickrematunge was shot while he was on his way to work around 10:30 a.m on 8 January 2009, a few days before he was supposed to give evidence against Gotabaya Rajapaksa's alleged corruption in arms deals before a judge.

Reporters Without Borders said that "Sri Lanka has lost its more talented, courageous, and iconoclastic journalists", and said that "President Mahinda Rajapaksa, his associates and the government media are directly to blame because they incited hatred against him and allowed an outrageous level of impunity to develop as regards violence against the press".

Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo said in a statement, "The assassination of Lasantha Wickrematunge, in broad daylight on a public road, has sent shock waves of anger, fear and desperation through the country.

"[142] In a statement ahead of World Press Freedom Day former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the government of Sri Lanka to ensure that those responsible for Lasantha Wickrematunge's murder are found and prosecuted.

Evidence of Jesudasan led to the arrest of Kandegedara Piyawansa an Army Intelligence officer who had been accused of having imbibed the mechanic with alcohol to steal his ID card.

Both suspects were in remand custody when Jesudasan died mysteriously inside the prison on 13 October 2011 and Piyawansa was set free to resume work in his previous unit.

The two young men named Balraj Ram Prakash and Kumarasingham Vishnukumar had been seen by eye witnesses being stopped by Sri Lanka's security forces in Vavuniya while they were travelling to Chettikulam before they were allegedly blind folded and abducted.

On 10 October 2016, the Criminal investigations department got the family members of the Tamil youths to identify their remains using pictures of the charred bodies which DNA tests proved were of the two men.

The Peoples tribunal at the Hague announcing its verdict indicted the Sri Lankan Government of human rights violation allegations against the murder of Wickrematunge.

Rajapaksa alleged that the case filed against him by Wickrematunge's daughter was "politically motivated"[195] by the United National Party to stop him from contesting the Presidential Election that year.

Wickrematunge's investigations led to hundreds of military intelligence officers, generals, businessmen, corporations, politicians and officials being exposed in corrupt deals in Sri Lanka.

He editorialized and persistently exposed colossal tax evasions and kickbacks from defense deals and cabinet ministers "organizing fake travel documents for assassins and renegade rebel leaders" and kept the nation well informed on corruption and governmental malpractice.

[209] Wickrematunge was one of the most persistent and loudest critics of the Rajapaksa government and criticised the regime over the conduct of the war and lack of safety for its civilians trapped by the fighting.

[263] Wickrematunge described himself as an Idealist[264][258] and was one of the country's few figures during his lifetime who spoke out and editorialized in support of gay rights and called for the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Sri Lanka.

[265] Wickrematunge spoke out for the rights of the Muslims, low-caste and the disabled in the country and would use his political standing to implement these views into action whilst in the thick of the policy-making and decision-making process of the United National Party.

[262][266][267] During Wickrematunge's funeral, Ranil Wickremesinghe addressing the gathering on 12 January 2009 said, "Lasantha had to pay the high price with his life like all great leaders in the past who crusaded against corruption and malpractices, and who espoused the cause of democracy, freedom of the people and media rights".

His brand of "fearless journalism" cast an exposing glare on the darkness of political and military power and uncovered to the public the corrupt secrets of those elected into government.

The Sunday Leader carried the posthumous editorial[283] by Wickrematunge,[284] in which he blamed the government directly for assassinating him and journalists in Sri Lanka as its "primary tool" for controlling the media.