Murder of a Thomian boxing captain
Geoff Wijesinghe
When I saw Vijitha Parakrama lithe and stylish, win the best boxer's
trophy at the Stubbs Shield meet in the 1970s, held at the Echelon
Square, Fort, on a site where now stands the Hotel Galadari, I decided
that here was another classy pugilist in the mould of the famous Albert
Perera, who in my view, is the best boxer ever produced by this country.
Watching the Thomian captain bob, weave, jab and unleash furious
flurries of combination punches at close range, was as if I was seeing
Albert Perera in his youth, when boxing for Zahira.
In fact, I later found that Parakrama's father W. A. Somapala,
himself a former national champion, had been coached by Albert Perera at
the YMCA, and had coached his son in the same style as that of the great
champ.
Outstanding boxer
Incidentally, Somapala later became a jockey when horse racing was at
its peak in this country, and displaying the same guts that made him an
outstanding boxer, he became Ceylon's champion jockey, ahead of famous
names such as Ted Fordyce and Len Sawyer.
After leaving S. Thomas', Vijitha on the death of his father, took
the reins of a flourishing cane furnishing business and a general store
at Justice Akbar Mawatha, Slave Island.
By then, I knew Vijitha quite well. The travel trade paper, which I
was publishing at the time, was being printed at a print shop almost
opposite Vijitha's store, and I would often walk across the road and
have a chat with him.
One afternoon in March 1983, Vijitha Parakrama stepped out of his
store, accompanied by the young Thomian boxing coach. They were on their
way to Fort to collect a shield, which the former Thomian boxing captain
was donating as a prize at the STC Inter House Meet, in memory of his
father.
As he was entering the vehicle, two men rushed up to him from behind.
One of them stabbed him in the back. Parakrama, brave and courageous,
turned sideways and got hold of his assailant and held him in a viselike
grip. Blood was now gushing from his wound.
Contract killing
Just then, a second assailant also stabbed Parakrama who then
crumpled in a heap on the pavement. The shocked friends in the double
cab rushed him to the General Hospital's Accident Service, where he
later succumbed to his injuries. He was 25 years at the time of his
death. Meanwhile, his assailants had vanished.
It is now 20 years since Vijitha Parakrama was murdered. Despite
detailed investigations into the murder, the Police have not been able
to solve the crime.
Police questioned two young men with whom Vijitha had had an
altercation at a well-known hotel in Slave Island a few days before his
murder, but drew a blank. It was strongly suspected that Vijitha's was a
contract killing.
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