The recent arrest of students of the Kelaniya University has raised much concern, with several controversial issues involved.
The issues include: the arrest of females in the absence of a woman police constable (WPC); the alleged manhandling and assault of students by police on the university premises and in the police station; the fact that most of the students arrested were not involved in the dispute; female students exiting lecture halls and the library to avoid the tear gas attack; first-year girls having to rush to their boarding houses to escape the havoc; a young man visiting the campus to see his girlfriend; the student union president and several young men arrested on the grounds that they had attacked the police during an attempt to settle a dispute between the Arts and Science faculties.
“The police started to assault us the moment we were taken to the police station,” said student union president Anuja Kahandawarachchi, adding that both WPCs and PCs assaulted the girls with their hands and batons in the police station.
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| Kelaniya University female undergraduates covering their faces as they are escorted to Hulftsdorp Courts on Friday. |
“It is difficult to describe how the girls were assaulted. They started assaulting by kicking us hard first. It was that bad,” he said.
The dispute began with an Arts Faculty student, Sugath Saman, being stabbed on February 3 evening. On February 5, the Science Faculty students had started throwing stones at the Arts Faculty students.
“When the Police came, we pointed out the people who were responsible for stabbing Saman but the Police didn’t listen to us,” he added.
Mr. Kahandawarachchi further said that several police officers who appeared to be under the influence of liquor came at night on February 5 and assaulted the students again. “They tied one boy’s hands and feet and hit him hard after which he vomited several times that day,” he said.
Mr. Kahandawarachchi is said to be suffering from a hearing problem and having a leg injury due to the assault while most of the girls too were injured due to the assault. “I was going to talk to the police about what to do next when six PCs present were ordered to arrest me and they started assaulting me,” Mr. Kahandawarachchi said.
Only three students had been allowed to read their statements at the police station before signing them. The rest of the students were forced to sign their police statements without reading them. Further, none of the parents of the students, lawyers or monks were permitted to visit them during their stay at Kiribathgoda Police station.
The girls who were arrested were first and second year students of the University. Three students going out of the university in a three-wheeler to their boarding place in Wewelduwa, were reportedly arrested by the police. Even though the girls have said that they were not involved in the dispute the police had arrested them saying that being university students was sufficient excuse for their arrest.
Police have claimed that damage estimated at Rs. 199,622.50 has been caused to university property, but the students’ union says the only damage is to a window that was broken.
History Department head Dr. Chandana Abeyratne, the Senior Student Counsel of the Social Science Faculty, who had participated in settling student disputes on previous occasions, was also arrested along with History Department Assistant Lecturer Sanjeewa Pathirana.
Both lecturers had been at Isurupaya attending a workshop on preparing new school books on History when the dispute had occurred, but the police had arrested them claiming they organised it. “I was in Isurupaya when I got the call saying that the student union president had been arrested. I knew the situation could get worse so I came back as soon as possible. When I arrived at the university the fighting had subsided and the science students were being sent out of the university under the supervision of the Police, which is the normal procedure,” Dr. Abeyratne said.
“What was not normal procedure was that the Police attacked the students who were in the lecture rooms as well on the road, with tear gas. So the students were in a confused state,” he said. In the confusion the police missed the students who actually assaulted them and arrested some innocent girls instead, he said.
Dr. Abeyratne said that seeing some students with stones in their hands he had dispersed them and then went to the library where there were around 150 girls trapped there along with University lecturers and library staff, all suffering from the effects of tear gas. “I asked them to follow me two-by-two. I saw Kiribathgoda SSP K.D. Somapala and went up to him with the students still following me, as I knew him well before having settled student disputes with him on earlier occasions,” Dr. Abeyratne said.However, as he went close to the SSP a girl following him was stopped by the SSP saying that she was the one who argued with him and then a PC started assaulting her, he said.
“I tried to explain that the girl was innocent and had been trapped inside the library and didn’t even see what went on outside. But they didn’t listen. The PC continued assaulting her even while I was explaining,” he said.
Then Assistant Lecturer Pathirana had tried to stop the PC assaulting the girl, he said. “SSP Somapala alleged that we were the ones who organised the dispute and ordered our arrest,” Mr. Pathirana said.
Police spokesman SSP Ranjith Gunsekara said that a police investigation was already underway about the allegations against the police officers. |
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