Sri Lankan cop sacked for playing piano as protesters broke into President's house | Oneindia News
On Friday, Sri Lanka's police force said that it had sacked an officer who entertained protesters with an impromptu piano performance after they entered the island nation's presidential compound last year. Constable R M D Dayaratne was deployed to help protect the colonial-era residence on the day it was taken over by protesters who forced then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country. Instead, reports revealed that he sat at a grand piano in the compound and played a song to the crowd streaming through its rooms. A senior officer, speaking on condition of anonymity said that Dayaratne was on social media playing the piano while the building was being vandalised.
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#SriLankaProtests #SriLankaCrisis #SriLankaEconomy #RMDDayaratne #SriLankaCop #GotabayaRajapaksa #RanilWickremesinghe
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NewsTranscript
00:00 On Friday, Sri Lanka's police force said that it had sacked an officer who entertained
00:17 protesters with an impromptu piano performance after they entered the island nation's presidential
00:23 compound last year.
00:25 Constable R.M.D. Dayaratne was deployed to help protect the colonial-era residents on
00:30 the day it was taken over by protesters, who forced then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksha
00:36 to flee the country.
00:38 Instead, reports revealed that he sat at a grand piano in the compound and played a song
00:43 to the crowd streaming through its rooms.
00:47 A senior officer speaking on condition of anonymity said that Dayaratne was on social
00:52 media playing the piano while the building was being vandalised.
00:57 Referring to the ancient Roman Emperor Nero, the officer said, "He was our Nero.
01:02 Nero is said to have played the fiddle while the city burned in a week-long fire."
01:08 According to reports, police authorities concluded that the constable had breached discipline
01:13 after a lengthy investigation.
01:15 Before the compound was entered in July 2022, protesters had been camped outside Rajapaksha's
01:21 office for months, demanding he step down over the island nation's unprecedented economic
01:26 crisis.
01:28 Protesters seized the residence and were later seen romping in the presidential pool and
01:32 jumping on Rajapaksha's four-poster bed.
01:36 Rajapaksha was accused of precipitating corruption and mismanagement that triggered the downturn,
01:41 which led to severe shortages of food, fuel and medicines.
01:45 He was forced to seek temporary exile in Singapore, from where he issued his resignation, though
01:51 he has since returned to Sri Lanka.
01:53 His successor, Ranil Vikramasinghe, has offered an amnesty to those returning historic artefacts
01:59 stolen from the building.
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