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Justice de Abrew now faces sexual assault charge
View(s):The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Tuesday filed a further report in the Mount Lavinia Magistrate’s court charging Supreme Court Judge Sarath de Abrew with sexually harassing his domestic aide.
Police and CID officers at Justice de Abrew’s residence
Earlier, Justice de Abrew was granted bail when he surrendered to the same court where he faced charges of assaulting his domestic aide. She was admitted to hospital by the Police on June 27.
Challenging the additional charge, President’s Counsel Thirantha Walaliyadda, who appeared for Justice de Abrew, said the police had cited only injuries sustained by assault in their B report, but the CID had later added sexual harassment to the charges.
Police Media Spokesperson ASP Ruwan Gunasekara told the Sunday Times the very first B report filed by the Mount Lavinia Police cited injuries sustained by assault, but the CID had amended the report after conducting their initial investigations.
The ASP said that amending the B report was not unusual as it depended on the progress of the investigations.
The Mount Lavinia Police and the CID had on several occasions sought to record a statement from Justice de Abrew at his residence on a complaint lodged by the domestic, but he had refused to oblige.
The CID on Tuesday went to Justice Sarath de Abrew’s residence after obtaining a warrant from the Mount Lavinia Magistrate’s to arrest him on the instructions of the Attorney General.
Justice de Abrew surrendered to the Mount Lavinia Magistrate Court and was granted surety bail of Rs 500,000. The Mount Lavinia Magistrate asked him to give a statement to the CID and hand over his pistol to the court.
The police spokesman confirmed that the CID recorded a statement over a period of four hours from Justice de Abrew on Wednesday and that he handed over his pistol to the court.
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Meanwhile Justice de Abrew filed a Fundamental Rights Application in the Supreme Court seeking an interim order preventing his arrest.The Supreme Court took up the FR case for mention on Wednesday.
President’s Counsel Manohara de Silva appearing for Justice de Abrew informed court that he needed to amend the petition after the Magistrate Court’s proceedings.
Additional Solicitor General Yasantha Kodagoda appearing for the respondents submitted that the Mount Lavinia Magistrate had acted in a biased manner. After considering the submissions of ASG, the Supreme Court ordered the Registrar of the Mount Lavinia Magistrate Court to send the proceedings of the case against Justice de Abrew to the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) informed the Supreme Court that they intended to intervene in the case as the incident affected the entire judicial system. Earlier BASL had sent letters to the President and the Chief Justice asking them to take necessary action against the judge.
Justices Upaly Abeyratne and Anil Gooneratne fixed the FR case to be mentioned on July 14 before a fuller bench presided over by the Chief Justice.