Another ‘Kekille’ judge emerges in Colombo Magistrate court

Raid on T20 garden possible since DIG Senanayake had gone on leave

(Lanka-e-News-23.April.2012, 11.50PM) It was revealed in the Colombo Magistrate court today , that the police officers who conducted the raid on the 21st dawn on the Wanathamulla T20 ‘garden’ were in a drunken state. This was disclosed to the Magistrate by the lawyer who appeared on behalf of the suspects. The additional Magistrate Ms. Praharsha Ranasinghe made a strange and ludicrous comment to the Lawyers appearing for the suspects in this regard: she said , if the police officers have been drunk , the complaint should be made to the superior police officers. If that is the case , in future , courts are unnecessary in this country. If a judge says , when a complaint is made to him/her of a wrongdoing, that it shall be directed to the higher police officers , it means then the powers of the courts had been transferred to the police by the court itself. In other words , according to the Magistrate , the lawyers must address their case to the Police and seek justice from them. Perhaps , Ms. Praharsha Ranasinghe had learnt this legal procedure and practice not from the law College but from Kekille law Vidyalaya . Of the 23 suspects who were produced before the Magistrate today (23),except two suspects all others were released on personal bail, and the case was postponed to 16th July . Meanwhile the relatives of the suspects were also to file action today at the Human rights Commission against the police arrests. While there is no emergency regulations in force, this laying of siege to the T 21 garden , videotaping the residents after lining them up and arresting them had raised serious issues as to the police propriety . Another side to this issue had been reported to Lanka e news . why DIG Senanayake did not take any action hitherto in regard to the alleged criminal activities that had been carried on in this Garden. It is learnt that the DIG had been receiving bribes from the kassippu , heroin and ganja (cannabis) dealers in the ‘gardens’ in Colombo , and therefore allowed them to engage in those unlawful businesses. According to sources , DIG Senanayake is receiving around Rs. 25 lakhs monthly from the Colombo underworld leaders for permitting them to carry on their illicit dealings. Owing to this underhand understanding between the DIG Senanayake and underworld leaders /drug peddlers , this raid had been conducted when he was on leave , and on the orders of DIG S.A.D. Gunawardena. Later Anura Senanayake had questioned DIG Gunawardena , why the former was not informed of this raid. Gunawardena had replied that , since Senanayake was on leave they did not wish to disturb his holiday when the raid was being conducted. In any event , police sources say because of this raid , they were able to apprehend a most wanted drug dealer, Kushman. This garden comes under the purview of the Borella police whose OIC is Inspector Anurudha Bandaranaike. He had joined the police force as a grama security officer. But being a political stooge he had got himself elevated to the high position via sordid and unscrupulous activities so characteristic of political lackeys. Hence he has no skills or training in techniques to curb crimes. Sadly,it is because of such police officers occupying top positions in the police that the crime wave in the country had gone out of control.