The residents of Temple Road in Seeduwa are ready to take a firm stand against what they termed as frequent police abuse, following some incidents on New Year’s Day.
Several youth returning home after participating in religious activities and visiting friends and relatives on Tuesday, were allegedly stopped by a group of drunken policemen near the 18th mile post and assaulted and forced to strip.
When The Sunday Times visited the area, an angry group of residents charged that this was not an isolated incident and such abuses were frequently carried out by a couple of policemen.
One of the victims of the alleged assault was the 14 year old son of Alexander and Pushpalatha Fernando. He had been travelling back from his grandmother’s house on his bicycle, ahead of other members in his family, when he was stopped by eight policemen at the junction.
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| The scene of shame. |
The boy, who is now too afraid to go to school because of the shame he endured told The Sunday Times how he along with another boy of about 20 years of age were ordered to release air from their bicycle tyres and then strip naked.
“When they asked me to remove my clothes I refused and then they beat me on my neck, face and stomach. I was so scared that I obeyed them after that. The other boy didn’t even make a complaint about what happened because it was the police who did this,” he said.
He said after the humiliating incident he rode his bike as fast as possible to a nearby house and begged for a cloth to cover himself.
His mother meanwhile unaware of her son’s plight was returning home with her husband and her two daughters when she was informed about some trouble at the junction involving her teenage son.
“I immediately thought he had met with an accident. When I arrived at the junction all I saw were my boy’s clothes on the ground and I begged with the police to set him free because I thought they had put him in a jeep,” she said.
Mrs. Fernando was then allegedly threatened and kicked by the policemen who asked her if she too wanted to be stripped naked and sent home. She said that some of the policemen couldn’t even stand straight due to their alleged merry-making.
Another resident Sunil Lakshman claimed that his two sons aged 19 and 20 were returning home after attending evening mass at the Kale Palliya when they were also allegedly assaulted by the same gang of policemen.
“They were brutally assaulted by the policemen and fortunately I was in the area and ran to save them. One officer had his foot on my 19 year old son’s chest while the others were kicking the two of them. I managed to pull them out by their legs and then they turned on me,” he said.
Another who was harassed that evening was 25 year old Ramesh Ranmal who was also asked to release the air from his bicycle and strip naked before being asked to ride back home.
“I too was going home from church and luckily my uncle’s home was just round the corner and he gave me some clothing. If it was any other day all the people in the village would have been witness to this act,” he said.
Two others claimed they were abducted and taken to a lonely alley along the 20th milepost road where they were assaulted.
Soon after these incidents a group of about 100 residents marched to the Seeduwa police to lodge a protest when to their horror they found that the officers at the station had also been drinking.
“The Officer in Charge of the Seeduwa police took statements from us but didn’t let us lodge an entry. We then requested him to order his men back into the station so that we could identify them and he can see for himself that they had been drinking but he refused,” Ruwan Prasad, a resident in the area said.
The people also alleged that the police had returned to the village the next day to make peace with them asking them not to talk to the media about the incident. But the residents did not pay heed to their requests
Prasad alleged that two policemen namely Niroshan and Ispector Sampath were notorious for such acts of abuse.
One policeman had been injured by a stone which had been thrown at him during the incident which the police claimed caused the clash. However, residents denied the stone throwing incident adding that it may have been the work of two women who were well known for pelting passersby with stones.
Meanwhile police say, a group of unruly youths who were lighting fireworks at the junction had attacked policemen with stones which had sparked a backlash which had then been exaggerated by the people. They said that the police officer injured by the stone had to be taken to hospital.
Meanwhile, Police spokesperson SSP Ranjith Gunasekera said that an independent inquiry had been ordered by the Police Chief regarding the incident.
Gampaha District DIG K.P Pathirana told the Sunday Times that he was unable to comment on the incident or any action taken until the report has been studied. |
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