News
Victim goes abroad unknown to police, investigations in limbo
View(s):Alleged shooting of SAITM CEO
By Damith Wickramasekara
Police investigations into the alleged shooting of the South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine (SAITM) Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr Sameera Senaratne, have run into complications due to the alleged victim having left the country.
Police yesterday confirmed that the SAITM CEO had gone overseas. While Dr Senaratne is well within his rights to travel abroad during the course of the investigation, DIG (Crimes) and Police Spokesman Priyantha Jayakody said it would have been advisable for him to have first consulted detectives working on the case, prior to making his departure.
“This is a high-profile case and there might be a breakthrough any moment. We may also need to seek clarification from him regarding any details that could emerge. This will prove difficult with him being away,” the DIG pointed out.
Both the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and the Mulleriyawa Police are currently investigating the incident.
Meanwhile, describing the incident earlier this week, Dr. Senaratne told the Sunday Times he left the SAITM campus for his home around 8 pm on the night of February 6.
He was driving along Chandrika Kumaratunga Mawatha near SAITM, when he saw a motorbike coming towards his vehicle, at which point he slowed down. “I felt as if a rock had struck the vehicle. I then saw that the two persons on the motorbike were wearing full-face helmets and one was trying to fire a weapon,” Dr. Senaratne said. At this point, he said, he had kept driving while slumped in his seat.
He speculated that, the assailants missed hitting him as the windows of his vehicle were tinted and it was difficult to see inside. “I heard the bike speeding away. While keeping my head down, I brought the car to a halt.”
After sometime, a three-wheeler and two other vehicles stopped to check what had happened. Dr. Senaratne had then phoned the Mulleriyawa police and reported the incident. He then phoned the Neville Fernando Teaching Hospital and asked for an ambulance, in which he went to the hospital, where the staff checked him for any injuries. In the absence of any injuries, he had returned home.
Dr. Senaratne further claimed he had received several death threats since the Appeal Court delivered its verdict on the SAITM case. These include threats made over the phone as well as a letter sent to him two days before the incident, demanding he quit as SAITM CEO. “I gave all the phone numbers that the calls were made from, as well as the letter to the police,” he added.
Police protection has now been provided to Dr. Senaratne, while both the CID and Mulleriyawa police have recorded separate statements from him. He said the police had told him they were checking CCTV footage of nearby cameras and have even identified a suspicious motorbike.
Police sources disclosed to the Sunday Times that they have uncovered some important clues connected to the incident. They further said there were some contradictions in the statements given by Dr Senaratne and the driver of the ambulance that came to take him to hospital. Meanwhile, clothes that the SAITM CEO wore at the time of the incident, have been sent to the Govt. Analyst’s Dept for analysis.
Detectives were also examining the angle from which the shots were fired into Dr Senaratne’s car to determine how they failed to strike him.
