Court to reveal cause of Dinesh Schaffter’s death today

The Colombo Magistrate Court is set to announce the cause of death behind the demise of popular businessman Dinesh Schaffter today. 

The disclosure was made in court yesterday by Colombo Additional Magistrate Ranjindra Jayasuriya following the submission of the report compiled by a five-member committee of experts.

This committee which consisted of Forensic Medical Consultants including Prof. Dinesh Fernando, Asela Mendis, U.C.D. Perera, S. Sivasubramaniam and P.R. Ruwanpura were tasked with ascertaining the precise cause of the businessman’s death.

The family of the deceased businessman sought permission from the court yesterday to have their legal representative’s present information concerning the post-mortem examination report, once it is submitted.

However, the request was denied by the Additional Magistrate who noted that post-mortem examinations are solely intended to determine the cause of death and that the law does not permit external parties to provide additional information on the matter.

Consequently, the Additional Magistrate instructed the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) to facilitate the release of the late businessman’s remains, currently held at the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital, to his family. She also ordered the provision of necessary arrangements for the burial at the Jawatte Cemetery, in compliance with previous court directives.

The former Janashakthi group of companies Director, was found tied up in his car at the general cemetery, in Borella on 15 December 2022 under suspicious circumstances, and died a day later while receiving treatment at the ICU of the National Hospital in Colombo.