Accused pleads guilty in SL’s first SMS harassment case
Sri Lanka’s first SMS harassment case concluded after a lengthy hearing of almost seven years at the Colombo Fort Magistrate Court after the accused Suresh Marcellus, former Managing Director of Trans World Movers (Pvt) Ltd, pleaded guilty recently.
When the case was taken up for hearing on the August 22, the accused had pleaded guilty before the Colombo Fort Magistrate Court and was ordered to pay Rs. 3000 as fines or one month imprisonment if he failed to pay the fine Marcellus, Thamaris Gomez – a director of the company, Imashi Oris Apsara, Sharmila Alirajah and Sandra David were accused of SMS harassment against Ramani de Silva who was also a partner of the company.
Other than Mr. Marcellus, the other four accused were discharged in a previous hearing of the case on 17th August 2008.
The Kollupitiya police filed the case on complaint lodged by Clement Silva, Managing Director of a rival company claiming that his wife Ms. Ramani de Silva had been threatened and harassed by these accused via SMS and fixed telephone using obscene language.
According to Counsel Jeevantha Jayathilake who appeared for the aggrieved party, the charges were framed under the Telecommunication Act Section 58 and 59 (1) for using obscene transmissions for the purpose of defaming the character of the plaintiff affecting his business.
Common and particularly unpleasant form of harassment is that involving malicious communications either through the post, the telephone, fax, by cyber stalking through the Internet or, an increasing problem, by the use of text or SMS messages sent to mobile phones, he added.
Meanwhile according to Court documents, an alleged cheating case involving the same accused Suresh Marcellus has been settled before the Colombo High Court after he paid a sum of Rs. 776,520 to Ms Ramani de Silva as he had sold 15,600 of her shares of Trans World Movers (Pvt) Ltd to that amount cheating her in the transaction.
comments powered by Disqus