| News |
||||
| Two
rights cases against Mirihana police The petitions have been filed separately by a garment factory businessman from Homagama and the ayurvedic physician along with six other employees of a health centre at Old Kesbewa Road, Nugegoda. OIC Quintus Reman has been cited as the first respondent in both cases which is due to be supported shortly in the Supreme Court. In the petition, ayurvedic physician Christopher Warnasuriya says he was operating a health centre which has been duly registered and is engaged in the business of providing ayurveda treatment. The petitioners claim that the OIC along with another police officer (IP Kodituwakku) had called over at the health centre and wanted to search the premises and when inquiries were made whether they had a search warrant the Inspector had slapped one of the female employees and dragged her into a police jeep. Thereafter the other had also been arrested without giving a valid reason. The charges
filed against the ayurvedic physcian was that he had committed an
offence by managing a brothel and another person has been charged
for assisting in prostitution while the five others have been charged
under the Vagrants Ordinance. The petitioners claimed that OIC Reman and IP Kodithuwakku had arrested the first to the sixth petitioners on a number of occasions earlier on allegations that they were involved in prostitution and in none of these cases have they been found guilty. They claim that they have been continually harassed as the were not willing to pay the two police officers and their predecessors the sums of money demanded by them or agree to the other demands made of them. They state that they are continuously being prosecuted under the Vagrants Ordinance and Brothels Ordinance to be ultimately discharged having been found not guilty of the respective charges. In the other case, a manufacturer of readymade garments, Dhanapala Maturage, had been arrested by a team led by OIC Reman and allegedly tortured in the police barracks . The petitioner had been arrested on October 17, 2003 without the police giving any reason and thereafter had been assaulted with clubs after being held in the police barracks. He claims that he was hung and badly beaten up. The JMO of the Kalubowila hospital has recorded that the petitioner had sustained injuries while in police custody. The petitioner claims that he had been tortured, illegally arrested and illegally detained. The case filed by the ayurveda centre employees is being handled by Govinda Jayasinha and the other case by Manohara de Silva. The instructing attorney in both cases is B. Thalagune |
||||
Copyright © 2001 Wijeya Newspapers Ltd. All rights reserved. |
