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| Hindu
goddess stripped of jewellery Five armed men who had arrived at the house where the shrine was, had forced themselves in and taken away all the jewellery which decorated the statues of the Hindu Goddess 'Amman'. Mallika, a woman employee of the priest, who was in the house with her 16-year-old daughter said the gang identified themselves as CID and police officers. "It was around 6.30 a.m. when I opened the door to wash the verandah and clean the place. A van stopped in front of the house and three men out of five got out. They came through the gate and tried to enter the house when I stopped them. Then one claimed that he was going in to worship while the other two identified themselves as CID officers and wanted to search the house as they had information that we had links with the LTTE" a shocked Mallika said. When Mallika's daughter tried to inquire in English, one man who claimed to be a Muslim had spoken in Tamil and showed an ID. "My daughter said the ID had a picture of him in police uniform" said Mallika. The men, two of them in T-shirts, had then entered the house and gone into the room on the left side. As they began pulling down the jewellery from the statues, Mallika had protested. "When I questioned the need to remove the jewellery, they said they had received information that there was a bomb hidden under the statues" she said. Mallika resisted their orders to go in and had been persistent that they carry out the search in her presence. Then, one man had pointed a gun at Mallika while another had twisted the daughter's hand and held her against the wall. When mother and daughter began to scream, they had scurried out. The gang had also taken with statues of the 'Kaamachi Amman' and a 'Murugan' statue, but had dropped the latter in their hurry to get away. Mallika had taken down the number of the van, but police investigations had revealed that the vehicle with that number plate belonged to the Bribery Commission. Athough the Wellawatte Police showed her more than 200 pictures of criminals from their records, Mallika said none of them were among the men who committed the robbery. Two of the men involved in the robbery are said to have visited the house the previous afternoon on the pretext of inquiring about soothsaying. But the priest being in India, Mallika had asked them to return the following week. Moorthi, a young boy in his twenties who had been working for the priest and was there on Thursday afternoon, identified the two men as being young. He said one man spoke in Tamil while the other seemed to be a Sinhalese. "The Sinhalese man was very fair, while the Tamil speaking man was tan in colour and had a beard". He said the two men, on their arrival on Friday morning, had inquired about his whereabouts from Mallika. The shrine is a well-known haunt for Hindus in particular while people from other religions also approached the priest for advice on their future or to seek remedies for their troubles. Mallika has been working for the priest over the last seven years and says this was the first instance that such an incident had taken place. On a complaint made by Mallika, the Wellawatte police had visited the scene with sniffer dogs, but are yet to make a breakthrough in their investigation. Two
charged in Vijaya killing The Attorney General indicted the two accused in the High Court on June 2, under Section 198 of the Penal Code for causing evidence pertaining to the killing of Vijaya Kumaratunga to disappear - that is, causing the disappearance of a motorcycle and a gun which were the evidence of the Kumaratunga murder, with the intention of shielding the offender from legal punishment, knowing or having reason to believe that during the period of February 16-18, 1988 Vijaya Kumaratunga's murder (an offence punishable under Section 296 of the Penal Code) had been committed.
The CWC is to lodge its protest at the project, urging the Japanese Government to withdraw from funding the project. Last week the CWC held a protest in Nuwara Eliya calling on the Government to halt the project. The protest followed the CEB calling for tenders for the project. CWC Parliamentarian S Yogaraja told The Sunday Times that the CWC will carry on the protest until the project is called off. " We were informed by the Government that during the PM's visit to Japan he had discussed this issue and he had arranged a meeting between Mr. Akashi and the CWC. We will inform the Japanese government that the project is detrimental to the environment. We are positive that the Japanese government will not fund a project which is harming the environment" said Mr. Yogaraja. Mr. Yogaraja added that last week’s protest saw the people's verdict on the project. "We will give Mr. Akashi all the facts as we feel that the Japanese government has not been given the true picture so far" he said. However a Japanese
spokesman said a visit by Mr. Akashi is not scheduled. "At present we are going ahead selecting the consultants who will of course be Japanese consultants. Tenders have also been invited but it will be the consultants who will decide on the major factors including the contractor" he said. However the CWC has reiterated its stand that the project will not get the green light. It is unlikely that the CWC will give up its protest. Mendis
killing: PS head arrested Colombo North DIG Padmasiri Liyanage told The Sunday Times that the police believed the suspect was involved in the killing and had evidence to prove it. He further said there were three more suspects to be arrested in connection with the killing.
The petitioner Nalin Kodikara in a rights application alleges that quarters allocated to him had been reallocated in April 2002 to the Ports Ministry Secretary, who is incidentally not an SLPA employee, on the recommendation of Minister Rauff Hakeem. Further he states quarters allocated to another SLPA mechanical engineer V Abeysundera was also re-allocated to T. Thaufeek, an SLMC MP of the Trincomalee District and the quarters vacated by another employee of the SLPA Malani Perera was allocated to SLMC MP for the Wanni District Rishard Badhurdeen, on the recommendation of the minister. He also states that allocations of official quarters were made to certain employees of the SLPA overlooking those who were most eligible, like himself. The petition details quarters had been allocated to A.G. Nandani, A.C.M.K. Rahuman , B.M. Mubarak and Mr. Faleel. Mr. Kodikara states that in spite of the President and the Secretary of the Engineers Association meeting the Head of the Engineering Division, M.I.A.M Ismail, who gave an undertaking to resolve the problem within two weeks nothing has been done to date. A subsequent
letter of protest sent in this regard, also proved to be ineffective.
Although on June 21 the Ministry Secretary wrote to the Head of
the Engineering Division to take necessary action in this regard
and reply to the Minister with copies to the Prime Minister's Secretary
such directions were not carried out. He requests court to declare his fundamental rights has been violated, to issue an interim order restraining the allocation of quarters to those who are not SLPA employees, to declare that he is entitled to official quarters and to direct the Bribery Commission to investigate into allegations pertaining to the illegal allocation. |
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