Courts round

A 30-year-old-youth was sentenced to death by Central Province High Court Judge D.S.C.Lekamwasam for murder and robbery. The accused Ponnambalam Sathis of Lindula was found guilty of the first count of murder and on the second count of robbery. The accused was sentenced to death on the first count and on the second count he was sentenced to five years rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs. 2,500 with an additional six months imprisonment if the fine was not paid.

In this case the accused was charged with the murder of Rakan Balanandan and robbery on January 10, 1998 when the accused was 21 years old. Before pronouncing the death sentence the Court asked the accused whether he had anything to say to which he replied that he was innocent of the murder. He also said that there were others and that he did not commit the murder for which he was charged.

Inspector Nanda of Lindula Police conducted investigations and State Counsel Wasantha Perera appeared for the Attorney General.

The case relating to the death of first year medical student Aludeniya Prasanna Udajeewa was postponed for July 19 by Kandy High Court Judge D.S.C.Lekamwasam when the case was taken up on June 13, to enable submissions to be made by the State and the defence. In this case three accused namely Kotuwegedera Sriyantha Dharmasena alias Banda, Egodagedera Jayantha Kumarasinghe alias Kiri Putha and Wasantha Banda Ratnayake alias Mangala have been indicted for the alleged murder of Prasanna Udajeewa on January 5, 1994. All accused are on bail.

On an earlier date the first accused gave evidence on the death of Udajeewa who died under strange circumstances. He had attended the university only one opening day and did not visit the university thereafter. The first accused is defended by Kithsiri Seneviratne and the second and third accused are defended by attorney-at-law Vernon Gunasekera. State Counsel Wasantha Perera appeared for the prosecution.