CA to consider Cardinal Ranjith’s writ petition on alleged import of swords

The Court of Appeal today fixed March 5 to consider a writ petition filed by Archbishop of Colombo, Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith seeking an order for security forces to conduct a proper inquiry into the alleged importation of 6000 swords by several persons in the period following the Easter Sunday attacks. 

The petition has cited IGP C.D. Wickramaratne, Secretary to the Ministry of Defence Maj. Gen. (Rtd.) Kamal Gunaratne and several other senior officers of the security forces as respondents. 

When the case was taken up before President of the Court of Appeal Arjuna Obeyesekere and Mayadunne Corea, Sanjeewa Jayawardena PC, who appeared for Cardinal Ranjith, told court that 6000 swords had been imported by an individual on the instructions given by Cinnamon Grand suicide bomber Mohammed Infas. He claimed that only 600 of these swords have so far been recovered and that 5400 remain unaccounted for. 

He asked that the CA order security forces to conduct a proper inquiry into the incident. In answer to a query from the bench whether the petitioner wished to take the petition forward if such an assurance was given, Sanjeewa Jayawardena PC, stated that the petitioner would be open to settling the issue if the respondents pledged in court to conduct a proper and transparent inquiry into the matter. 

By Manopriya Gunasekara