According to "The Sunday Leader" Ponnambalam's killing was organised by Baddegana Sanjeewa, a member of Kumaratunga's Presidential Security Division. Acting on Sanjeewa's instructions Reserve Police Constable Sugath Ranasinghe, posing as Shantha, became friendly with Ponnambalam. On the day of the killing Shantha lured Ponnambalam to Wellawatte where gangsters M. A. Kalinga (alias Moratu Saman) and Tharawatte Ajith (alias Sujeewa) were waiting to kill Ponnambalam. After the killing, the killers are alleged to have gone to the office of a deputy minister and shown the murder weapon, which belonged to Mahendra Ratwatte, Kumaratunga's second cousin and son of a deputy defence minister Anuruddha Ratwatte, and Ponnambalam's mobile phone as proof. According to "The Sunday Leader" Kumaratunga tried to protect Ponnambalam's killers after the assassination. In February 2002 "The Sunday Leader" published a transcript of a telephone conversation between Ranasinghe and OIC Nuwan Wedasinghe of the Criminal Detective Bureau (CDB) which further implicates Mahendra Ratwatte in Ponnambalam's killing. "The Sunday Leader" has claimed that it has received a sworn affidavit from CDB director SSP Bandula Wickremasinghe that Mahendra Ratwatte was involved in Ponnambalam's killing.