Sellapperumage Saman Piyasiri Fernando (23 March 1958 – 29 December 1989: Sinhala: සමන් පියසිරි ප්රනාන්දු: nom de guerre: Keerthi Vijayabahu), was the military wing leader of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna during the 1987-89 insurrection in Sri Lanka, the JVP's military wing also known as Deshapremi Janatha Viyaparaya (DJV).
[4] He was born on 23 March 1958 in Lunawa, Moratuwa, Sri Lanka as the third child in a Karava ethnic family with four siblings.
[5] Piyasiri's elder sister, a resident of Ganemulla, once worked as a nurse in a government hospital and was married in 1981 and later became a mother of two.
[4] Although Piyasiri's father was a supporter of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) and helped everyone, the childhood of his children was very sad due to his excessive alcoholism.
[4] On the day of Piyasiri's arrest, he was ready for the marriage with his girlfriend Indrani, the sister of Daya Wanniarachchi, the son of former JVP secretary Weeraketiya Heenbunne.
Saman's sister and girlfriend were interrogated at various locations, including the 6th floor of the CID headquarters, and were eventually released after two years of rehabilitation at the Ranmutugala home.
[6] As Wijeweera was ill, it was chaired by Piyadasa Ranasinghe and the meeting was held at the house of Podi Mahaththaya, a businessman in Kudugalwatta, Ratnapura.
[4][8] After Wijeweera's assassination, Piyasiri became the leader of the JVP on November 28, 1989, at a meeting of the Political Bureau held at Panukerapitiya, Ratnapura.
[14] Later the government issued a statement on November 28, 1989, stating that they wanted to arrest Somawansa Amarasinghe, Shantha Bandara, Saman Piyasiri Fernando, Gamini Gunasekara and Upali Jayaweera and that valuable rewards would be given to those who provided information about them.
[6] Piyasiri was first revealed to be the leader of the JVP through the Sinhala service of the Veritas Catholic Radio broadcast from the Philippines on 1 December 1989.
Insurgents led by Piyasiri, bombed a meeting of the Janatha Estate Development Board in Slave Island in November 1989, during which Bank of Ceylon Deputy General Manager E. T. Fernando died.
[15] On December 27, 1989, a special police team, led by SSP Lionel Gunathilake, arrested Saman Piyasiri, along with his mother and fiancé, who is a sister of JVP politburo member Daya Wanniarachchi, at Koswatte, Nawala, at a rented house owned by Mark Antony Fernando, who works at SLBC.
[4][17] Rohan Gunaratna also stated that before Piyasiri's death, he managed to deliver a speech to the interrogation personnel around him about the society of Sri Lanka based on capitalism and socialism.
Due to Piyasiri's inability to stay on target, the entire JVP machinery was destroyed by the security forces within seven weeks.
The film was directed by Anurudha Jayasinghe and popular actor Susan Niroshan played Piyasiri's role.