Court calls for progress report on probe into death of woman in police custody
June 21, 2023 07:29 pm
The Colombo Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday (21 June) ordered that the report on the progress of the investigation into the death of R. Rajakumari, who died while in the custody of the Welikada Police, be submitted to the court.
Accordingly, Colombo Additional Magistrate Harshana Kekunawala ordered that the relevant report be submitted to the court on 26 July.
The postmortem report of the deceased was taken up before court today by the Additional Magistrate, during which a witness, namely Mahendran Suresh, testified that he had seen Rajakumari being assaulted by officers of the Welikada Police.
He further revealed that two police officers had handcuffed him while he was at the Colombo Fort bus depot, and took him to a house located down Cotta Road in Borella, in which the deceased had been employed.
Suresh claimed that both he and Rajakumari were handcuffed together, and at that point she was in good health.
Subsequent to bringing them to the Welikada Police Station, however, Suresh revealed that two Police officers, whose appearances he described to the court, had assaulted both him and Rajakumari, despite her employer’s pleas to resolve the issue in a non-violent manner.
The witness testimonial was recorded under the direction of the Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Meryl Ranjan Lamahewa.
41-year-old Rajakumari, a resident of Badulla, was arrested on 11 May based on a complaint made by her employer, famed producer Sudharma Nethicumara, claiming that she had stolen gold jewellery belonging to her.
She had later died while in the custody of the Welikada Police, regarding which her relatives raised suspicions, claiming that she had been subjected to assault.
Disciplinary action was then taken against seven police personnel attached to the Welikada Police, with a Sub-Inspector (SI), two Sergeants and a Constable being interdicted while a Constable and two Women Constables were subsequently transferred.
