Court orders to cremate four inmates who died in Mahara Prison riot

Wattala Magistrate’s Court today (16) ordered to cremate the bodies of four inmates who died during the recent prison riot.

The post-mortem reports of the four deceased inmates were submitted to the Wattala Magistrate’s Court by the experts’ committee appointed in this regard.

A total of 11 inmates were killed in the prison riot which broke out on the 29th of November and 8 of them were posthumously tested positive for Covid-19.

As per the post-mortem reports, gunshot wounds remain the main cause of death for the four inmates in question.

Hence, the relatives had sought the court to grant permission to the remains.

However, Attorney General’s Coordination Officer State Counsel Nishara Jayaratne, raising objections, pointed out that permitting the burial of the deceased Covid-19 infected victims may have adverse effects.

Last week, the Attorney General’s Department had requested the magistrate to permit the post-mortems of the deceased inmates to be carried out under a multidisciplinary committee, as per a request made by the legal counsel of the aggravated party requested for a fair autopsy.

The nominations for the committee members, submitted by State Counsel Nishara Jayaratne, were later approved by the court.

Committee consists of Chief Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) of Colombo North Teaching Hospital in Ragama Dr Sandun Wijewardena, JMO of Infectious Diseases Hospital in Mulleriyawa Dr S.D.C Perera, Chief JMO of Colombo South Teaching Hospital in Kalubowila Dr P.P. Dassanayake, Prof. Jean Perera of Faculty of Medicine at University of Colombo and Firearms Specialist & Deputy Government Analyst P.G. Madawala.