Lieutenant Commander Yoshitha Rajapaksa (born 12 June 1988) is a Sri Lankan sportsman and former naval officer.
[8] His paternal grandfather D. A. Rajapaksa was a Member of Parliament and Minister of Agriculture and Land in Wijeyananda Dahanayake's government.
[11] In 2006, he joined the Sri Lanka Navy as a cadet officer and received his basic training at the Naval and Maritime Academy where he was promoted to Midshipmen and appointed aide-de-camp to his father the President.
[15][16] In January 2015, he was decommissioned from then rank of lieutenant by his father President Mahinda Rajapaksa, soon after the latter's defeat at the 2015 Sri Lankan presidential election discharging him from the navy.
[19] Investigations by a Parliamentary Committee revealed in January 2016 that Yoshitha lacked the qualifications needed for enrollment in the navy, failing to get the minimum results after sitting twice for ordinary level exams.
[20] Rajapaksa was reinstated on 25 September 2019, with effect from 28 February 2016 by the Navy Commander on orders of President Maithripala Sirisena to the rank of Lieutenant which he held in 2015.
[23] He resigned from the navy on 10 October 2020 and took up appointment as Prime Minister's chief of staff, having worked with his father during his suspension.
[28] In 2012 he won the International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) President's Medal for the Standard Division at the National Handgun Championship – 2012 conducted by the National Rifle Association of Sri Lanka[29] On 16 May 2012 Wasim Thajudeen, a Sri Lankan rugby player, died in a suspicious car accident in Colombo.
After the defeat of President Mahinda Rajapaksa on 8 January 2015, Sri Lankan authorities reopened the case due to new evidence, and currently investigating it as a murder.
[37] Yoshitha Rajapakse married Nitheesha Jayasekera, daughter of businessman Ananda Jayasekara on 3 October 2019 and the wedding was held at the Galle Face Hotel in Colombo.