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SC directs NPC to take disciplinary action against officers who violated FR
View(s):By Ranjith Padmasiri
The Supreme Court (SC) has directed the National Police Commission to initiate disciplinary action against Police officers found responsible for violating the fundamental rights of the wife of the former driver of MP Patali Champika Ranawaka by taking her, her child and her mother with them when they turned up to arrest her husband.
A three-judge bench of the SC comprising Justices S Thurairaja, Mahinda Samayawardhena and Arjuna Obeysekere gave the order in the court’s judgment on a Fundamental Rights Petition filed by Iresha Lakmali, the wife of the MP’s former driver.
The officers from the Colombo Crime Division (CCD) and the Imaduwa Police had arrived at the residence of the Petitioner’s mother in Imaduwa on the night of December 15, 2019. They had been looking for her husband, who had once worked for Mr Ranawaka as his driver and who was involved in an accident in 2016 in Rajagiriya.
Since her husband was not at home and she lost contact with him over the phone after his mobile phone battery ran out, the Police had insisted that the Petitioner accompany them to Colombo. She had initially resisted the request, pointing out she could not possibly leave her toddler, who was just 23 months old at the time and needed careful medical care and nourishment on account of her premature birth. To her dismay, the Police had insisted that she bring the child with her, which resulted in the Petitioner’s mother reluctantly coming forward to accompany them.
According to the sequence of events given by the Petitioner, all three had been taken to Colombo in a Police jeep and had spent nearly 12 hours in Police custody before being dropped off at home the following day. During this ordeal, they had not been provided with food, water or lavatory facilities. To make matters worse, the Petitioner had had to breastfeed her toddler in this vehicle brimful of strangers, the Court notes.
“The conduct of the Respondents, judged even by the lowest of standards, is a magnificent failure of all that the Rule of Law stands for. They have no doubt acted in a manner unbefitting of public office,” Justice S Thurairaja writes in his judgment, with Justices Samayawardhena and Obeysekere agreeing.
The Court ordered the State to pay as compensation a sum of Rs 10,000 out of the funds allocated to the Police Department, in view of the institutional issues observed.
The Justices also ordered Nevil Silva, Chief Inspector and Acting Director of the CCD, and A Meththananda, Chief Inspector of the CCD to pay Rs 250,000 each from their personal funds to the Petitioner within six months of the date of judgment. The SC also ordered the National Police Commission to take appropriate disciplinary action against the Respondents for the violations set out by the court.
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