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Court sees attack on singers by CBK-era PSD men as subversion of democracy
View(s):People in a democracy are free to have political preferences of their choice and those who try to subvert this right cannot be dealt with leniency by the law, said a high court judge while sentencing ten presidential guards who threatened to kill a popular singing couple in 1999. Panadura Provincial High Court Judge Kusala Sarojini Weerawardena made this remark on Thursday while sentencing ten former Presidential Security Division (PSD) police officers who served the unit during the tenure of former President Chandrika Kumaratunga to four and half year’s imprisonment. They were found guilty of threatening to kill singers Rookantha Gunatillake and Chandralekha Perera and subjecting them to degrading treatment.
The ten PSD members were also fined Rs. 21,000 each and each of them was also ordered to pay Rs. 200,000 as compensation to the victim couple.
The ten PSD members who were sentenced are constables E.B. Madhshan Kumara, W.D. Nihal Wijesiri, M.K. Sarath Kumara, K. Karunasena Jayalath, P.G. Leslie Gunatilleke, D.A. Athula Senaratna, Ratuhalambage Dharmasiri, B. Lalinda Rajaratna, Ishana Sampath Ranasinghe and B.A. Upali Ariyadasa.
In her order, the judge noted that the ten men had attacked the singers because they wanted to punish them for holding a different political opinion and that such notion was detrimental to society at large. Cosntable Ranhoti Podiduraulage Somaratna, an 11th suspect in the case, was released as the prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that he was involved in the incident.
The court was told that on January 26, 1999, the ten PSD men had gone to the singers’ home and subjected them to demeaning treatment by cutting off their hair and then pouring petrol over their bodies before threatening to kill them. The men warned the singers that that if they got onto any political stage, they would be severely dealt with.
The men had also robbed a gold chain and a wrist watch belonging to Mr. Gunatillake – which were valued at around Rs. 125,000 — and seized his jeep which was valued at around Rs. 3.5 million. The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) launched an investigation after it received a complaint from the couple.
All ten suspects were produced in court on Thursday to hear the judgment.
Judge Weerawardena said it was clear from the manner in which the crime was carried out that it was politically motivated. The two singers had been humiliated and Ms. Gunatillake’s long hair had been chopped off while Mr. Gunatillake’s hair too was cut in a manner that they were unable to go out in public without facing ridicule.
People standing outside the court and suspects being taken to courts
The judge said that it was clear that the attack was instigated by senior PSD officers during the tenure of President Kumaratunga as they felt that the presence of the popular singing duo on the political stage of a rival party would pose a challenge to the then president. The judge said none of the suspects could give a justifiable reason why they visited the home of the singers late in the night on the day of the incident. Hence it was clear they were guilty of the offence.
Lawyers who appeared for the suspects said this incident took place about 13 years ago and two years after the incident the suspects were interdicted. They urged court to show leniency to the suspects since they had undergone severe economic difficulties to maintain their families after they were interdicted from the police force.
State Counsel Chamalka Samarasinghe in her submission said that by carrying out such cowardly act in the presence of the 65-year-old mother of one of the singers and their young children, the suspects had exposed their imbalanced mental state. She said the men had abused their powers as members of the PSD and had not shown any sensitivity to the presence of minors. Even if they work for the PSD, the men were bound to uphold the law.She urged court to impose maximum punishment on the suspects who had abused their power so that it would be a lesson to others in powerful positions and a warning that they could not break the law and walk free.
Judge Weerawardena said that in a democracy, people are free to support any political party of their choice and by threating and attacking people over their political preferences, they had brought disrepute to the country as well. She said that due to the severity of the crime, she was sentencing nine of the convicted men to four and half years of rigorous imprisonment and the tenth, who was ailing, to simple imprisonment.
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