Twenty-one police officers attached to the Embilipitiya police station have been transferred temporarily pending an investigation into the clash which resulted in the death of a youth and inured several others.

The police officers have been transferred to Seethawaka and Kegalle police divisions so as to not impede the ongoing probe. 

Meanwhile police Special Task Force (STF) personnel have been deployed to tighten security in Embilipitiya after residents in the area staged a protest against police by blocking roads and torching tires on the streets for several hours today. 

Four policemen and three civilians were hospitalised with injuries following the clash during a party held at a residence on Nawa Nagara Road last Tuesday (Jan 4). One of the civilians passed away today, triggering the protests and a harthal. 

“When police officers were attempting to arrest the individuals behaving in a disruptive manner, one person jumped from the third floor of the building through glass,” police spokesman ASP Ruwan Gunasekara told reporters in Colombo. 

He was hospitalised in critical condition and succumbed to injuries this morning at the Ratnapura Hospital. 

Family and friends of the deceased have claimed that he was assaulted and pushed off the building by police officers, however the police maintain that no such thing took place. 

When pressed on this matter by journalists, the police spokesman stated that the preliminary inquiry uncovered that the individual jumped off the building and that the postmortem examination will reveal the cause of death.