Former JMO Chief seeks SC to prevent his arrest over loss of Thajudeen’s body parts

By S.S. Selvanayagam

Ex-Chief Judicial Medical Officer of Colombo Prof. Ananda Samarasekera yesterday (19) filed a Fundamental Rights petition seeking the Supreme Court to prevent his arrest in connection with the alleged loss of body parts of late Wasim Thajudeen.

The Petitioner cited Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine Secretary Anura Jayawickrama, Director General of Health Dr. P.G. Mahipala, Deputy Director General (Medical Services) Dr. Lakshmi C. Somatunga, the IGP, SSP B.R.S.R. Nagahamulla, Chief Inspector Ravindra Wimalasiri of the CID, Chief Judicial Medical Officer Dr. Ajith Tennakoon, Senior Lecturer Dr. Jean Perera of the Department of Legal Medicine and Toxicology, Additional JMO Dr. A. Hevage and the Attorney General as Respondents.

The Petitioner, at present the Vice Chancellor of the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM), Malabe, states he was appointed as the Chief JMO of Colombo and the Head of the Institute of Legal Medicine and Toxicology in November 2007 and served in that capacity until his retirement in June 2013.He states that on 17 May 2012, the office of the Institute of Legal Medicine and Toxicology received a charred body of an unknown person suspected to have died in a road traffic accident and subsequent burning of the said vehicle.

He states as per usual practice the said charred body was stored in the Mortuary and a post-mortem was conducted by him and two other Assistant JMOs and the process was assisted by minor staff A.V.R. Kularatne and S.A.D. Wimalasena.

As a practice the removal of body parts for retention and preservation is conducted by the assisting minor staff members who are trained for such purposes and the medical practitioner provides the necessary tags with identification numbers and such items are preserved and stored in the refrigerators stored in the mortuary, he states.

Any samples obtained for purposes of histology and/or toxicology are sent to the laboratory for such purposes and a receipt is obtained upon delivery and inventories in the laboratory, he states.

The dissecting of the human remains, removal of bone and other body part, retention, rearrangement of the human remains, and handing over of such remains to the relatives of the deceased persons are all handled by the minor staff, he states.

He states no necessity arose to reassess the body parts retained for further investigation and as per practice the said remains were stored in the freezer maintained for such purpose in the Mortuary.

He states several months later in September 2012 whilst searching for another set of remains retained for review purposes, he distinctly recollects seeing the said remains of Wasim Thajudeen in the said freezer.

The freezer unit and the cooler unit used for the purposes of storing retained remains of deceased persons were constantly under repair and during his tenure and he made requests for the replacement of both units, however approval was only granted for the replacement of cooler unit, he states.

He states he is unaware as to when the said freezer unit was replaced, however, he states the said freezer unit was not replaced during his tenure of office.

He laments that he is now made aware that the Magistrate on several occasions issued summons on him requiring him to submit the Post Mortem Report, however he never received such summons issued by Court.

He states the cause of death in his opinion remained unchanged, in that, the cause of death was determined by him as effects of head inquiry, injuries to lower limbs, thermal burns (due to fire) and probably carbon monoxide toxicity.

Consequent to an application made by the Chief Inspector Ravindra Wimalasiri, the OIC of the Murder Investigation Unit of the CID, the Additional Magistrate of Colombo ordered the exhumation of the body of late Wasim Thajudeen to conduct a second post mortem and during the said process it was discovered that several body parts of late Wasim Thajudeen had gone missing from the possession of the Institute of Legal Medicine and Toxicology which at the time was not under his supervision and control but under the supervision and control of Chief JMO Dr. Ajith Tennekoon, he states.

He bemoans the said Chief JMO due to some animosity is spreading false rumours about him and is likely to make allegations against him in order to cause disrepute to him.

He says he believes the body parts of late Wasim Thajudeen retained for further examination on his instructions and stored in the freezer may have been misplaced and/or lost and/or destroyed and/or decomposed during the transition of material to the new cooler during the tenure of the new Chief JMO.

He is seeking a declaration from the Court that his fundamental right to equality as well as the freedom from arbitrary arrest have been infringed by the Respondents.

Paliltha Fernando with Thisya Weragoda instructed by Thamila Dinushi Perera will support this application for granting of leave to proceed.