A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Thursday, January 19, 2017
Sentence in Sandun Malinga murder case
DR.Vickramabahu Karunaratne-2017-01-19
The
High Court of Badulla sentenced to death 5 police officers and a
security officer for causing the murder of Sandun Malinga a 17-year- old
young boy. The death sentence on the police officers gave a shock to
the public that expects action on corrupt politicians and their friends,
infamous for thuggery. Unusual but it is something that should have
come many years ago. Because inquiries carried out by the FCID recently,
exposed the involvement of police and security officers in crimes
committed by corrupt politicians. It is true that this case did not
receive much discussion in the media.
Sentencing of six persons connected with the police station should have
been news that opens the eyes of the people to the criminal tendencies
lingering behind the police uniform. It is acknowledged that inside
police stations people are beaten and tortured. Some believe that should
be the general nature of the police, in order to prevent robbery and
other crimes committed by village ruffians. They argue that if the
policemen are lenient household and village level crimes will increase.
Often, middle class people are happy if tough police officers come to
their area.
Precisely, because of such clumsy thinking, this judgment should have
received serious attention of the Sri Lankan society as a whole, and for
that purpose the media should have highlighted this issue and created
opportunity for discussion of the case, so that the meaning of this
sentence would have opened the eyes of people and also of all police
officers throughout the country. It could have strong effects in the
prevention of similar deaths in the future.
The boy and four of his relatives had gone to the town for the purpose
of some business when police suddenly beat them in public and thereafter
arrested them and took them to the police station and further tortured
them. It appears that the police had a suspicion that Malinga was
associated with crime and they wanted to get information. Their method
is arbitrary torture of suspects. As a result, Sandun Malinga got
seriously injured and the relatives, who were with him, tried to get the
attention of the police to get medical care for the boy immediately.
However, the police ignored all such requests. Next day the parents of
the boy came to the police station and saw his condition, and again
tried to get the attention of the police and also some higher up police
officers in order to get some medical attention for Sandun Malinga . The
police refused and instead, produced the five of them before a lady
Magistrate. She remanded the five of them.
The boy died in his brother's arms
The next morning Sandun Malinga was with his brother and was suffering
from a serious condition and even then the prison authorities failed to
provide immediate medical attention to the boy and in the morning the
boy died in his brother's arms inside the police station. Among the
matters that should have been discussed is first of all the issue of
arrest, without any justifiable ground.
It has become a common feature throughout police stations in Sri Lanka
to arrest without any substantial grounds justifying the arrest. There
are many instances in which serious injustices have happened and in some
in which even very serious injuries have been caused on the innocent
persons, simply because the police take this liberty to arrest anybody
if they so wish. And most persons arrested by them are even without the
slightest evidence to connect them to any crime. Secondly, there should
be a discussion on the responsibility of judicial officers who have the
powers to check the nature of arrest.
The matters that have not received serious attention of the National
Police Commission and the Judiciary, the Ministries of Justice and Law
and Order and also the Attorney General's Department are first of all
the issue of arrest without substantial grounds for arresting a person.
It is quite well known that in high profile cases which involved
politicians who are known to the country, the Criminal Investigation
Department (CID) takes a lot of precaution in order to have a thorough
inquiry to satisfy themselves of the evidence available of an accused
before taking the step of arresting such an accused. However, this is
not the case at the police station level, where almost every police
station arrests a person purely without any warrant or any justifiable
grounds for arresting the person. This matter needs very careful
consideration and instructions need to be issued either by way of
legislation or by regulations in order to stop this practice
immediately. Legislation that should be brought about is that no arrest
except in exceptional cases recognized by law, should be carried out
without a warrant issued by a Magistrate and the Magistrate should be
responsible to the safety of the arrested person.