Sandya Ekneligoda selected amongst BBC 100 Women 2022 Rajapaksa’s not free from my curse until justice served to Prageeth: Sandya

• I have travelled a long journey through various unexplainable hardships in search of justice to my husband
• It is 4,712 days since they have taken Prageeth from us and my quest is not over

By Kurulu Koojana Kariyakarawana   

Disappeared journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda’s wife Sandya Ekneligoda yesterday said the Rajapaksas will not be free from her curse until justice is meted out to her husband even after 12 years of suffering and agony.   

Sandya Ekneligoda addressed the media yesterday to announce that she was being selected among the BBC 100 Women series for 2022 on December 6th as an activist from Sri Lanka.   

“On January 25th, 2022 on the completion of 12 years since the disappearance of my beloved husband, I shaved my head and dressed up in black robes to make the powerful curse of ‘Swamibhakthi Athura Maha Sapaya’ to Rajapaksas, who are responsible for the fate of Prageeth.   

It is a very powerful curse and none of them will ever be free of it until justice is meted out to my husband one day,” Sandya Ekneligoda said.   
She said that she was proud to be selected to the BBC 100 Women season 2022 from Sri Lanka under the category of Activism and Advocacy, where 25 notable women will be selected worldwide.   
“I first came in front of a camera on January 25th, 2010 when my husband was abducted or disappeared and since then I have travelled a long journey through various unexplainable hardships in search of justice to my husband.   
It is 4,712 days since they have taken Prageeth from us and my quest is not over. During this journey many good hearted people have helped me whilst some have delayed and blocked me from courtroom to police station,” she said.   

“When I was in the police station on January 25th, 2010 incumbent President Ranil Wickremesinghe called me and said not to worry as he will help to find Prageeth. Today he has become the President of this country and all I request from him is although he couldn’t find Prageeth by taking the political pressure off the witnesses, at least to help thousands of others suffering from political victimization to find their justice,” she said.     

100 Women is a BBC multi-format series established in 2013 to examine the role of women in the 21st century, which was inspired by the female BBC journalists who worked on the in depth coverage of the 2012 Delhi gang rape.