Embilipitiya police assault: SC lets petitions to proceed

By S. S. Selvanayagam 

 The Supreme Court yesterday granted leave to proceed with the fundamental rights petition filed by the victims of the alleged Embilipitya police assault.

 The bench, comprising Chief Justice K. Sripavan and Justice Anil Gooneratne, fixed the hearing for 24 July for one petition and 31 August for three other petitions.

 Three petitions were filed by the victims and another petition was filed by the widow of the Embilipitiya young man who sustained fatal injuries.   

 The widow of Sumith Prasanna Jayawardhana (29), the Embilipitiya young man who sustained fatal injuries as a result of an alleged police offensive, filed a fundamental right violation petition seeking Rs. 10 million as compensation for her husband’s death.

 The other petitioners are K. P. G. Lasantha, P. G. Wasantha and the owner of the premises where the alleged incident took place D. P. Mendis.

 Petitioner and victim’s widow Shashika Nishamani Munasinghe in her petition cited Assistant Police Superintendent D. W. C. Dharmarathna, Chief Inspector S. R. Jinendra Dias, Sergeant Jinadasa, Constables Shantha, Saranga, Jayalath and Bandusena, Inspector Rjapaksha, the IGP and the Attorney General as Respondents.

 Lakshan Dias with Priyalal Sirisena appeared for the Petitioners. State Counsel Madhava Tennekoon appeared for the Attorney General.

 Petitioner Munasinghe, who is a mother of an eight-year-old girl and is also currently pregnant states in her petition that on 04 January 2016, a puberty ceremony was held at the premises of one D. P. Mendis opposite her residence where a revelry was held since morning till night.

 She states that around 11.00 p.m that night, when she was in her home, she heard a commotion from said premises. She crossed the road and saw a police officer on the road taking photos or video recording her husband who was scolding them for their alleged misbehavior, she says.

 Thereafter she managed to take her husband to the dining place and made him have dinner there, she adds.

 When her husband was having dinner, a few police personnel including ASP Dharmarathna and Chief Inspector Jinendra Dias came there and the ASP scolded her husband in foul language and pushed her away, she states.

 According to the Petitioner, the ASP and other police personnel started assaulting her and her husband and dragged her husband on the floor to the second floor and she went upstairs to see what was going on.

She states that she heard her husband crying, begging the police personnel not to hit him and she heard the sound of cracking glass and thus she went down to investigate. Despite resistance by her husband, the ASP allegedly pushed her husband out and he hit the ground.

 Despite the best efforts of the doctors at the hospital, states Munasinghe, her husband passed away. There was no reason for his death other than the fatal injuries he sustained due to the assault by the ASP and other police personnel, she claims.

 The petitioner is seeking the court to declare that her husband’s fundamental rights to freedom from torture, right to equality and the right that no person shall be punished with death or imprisonment, except by order of a competent court have been violated by the Respondent police personnel.