SRI LANKA: Eight men are facing fabricated charges after illegal arrests and torture by police

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that seven persons were arrested and charged with being involved in a fracas that caused the death of one Mr. Renganathen.

The confrontation occurred when a group of men tried to intervene in an argument between two men, Moses, a Catholic and Dickson, a Hindu. When a scuffle broke out, Moses was injured with a knife and Dickson’s father, Mr. Renganathen was beaten. He subsequently died in hospital. The police officers attached to the Uda Pussellawa Police Station did not conduct a proper investigation into the case but instead began arresting people at will. They arrested those who had witnessed the event and even some who knew nothing about the incident. To everyone’s surprise they did not arrest Moses who was directly involved in the dispute. The victims were tortured in the police station and forced to sign documents, the contents of which they knew nothing about.

This case is yet another illustration of the exceptional collapse of the rule of law in the country.

CASE NARRATIVE:

According to the information received by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), Mr. Letchcham Ponnambalan (37)[Photo is not available], Mr. Anthonysamy Sebastian (38), Mr. Veeraputhan Sathishkumar, Mr. Selvaraj Kamendran (25), Mr. Selvaraj Chandrakumar (31), Mr. Anthonysamy Arokiasamy (29), Mr. Theresiah Leo (18), Mr. Theresiah Stephen (19), are all residents of Waldimar Estate and use the same postal address of No: 31/1, Waldimar Estate, Thumbuwatte, Udupudsellawa in the District of Nuwara Eliya.

There are 124 families living at the Waldimar Estate in Udapussellawa (close to Welimada) which belongs to Stalin Plantation Company and out of those families 22 of them belong to the Catholic faith. These 22 families all live together.

Sathishkumar (40) a worker of this estate had run away with a girl from the same estate and had gone to reside in the girl’s house. Learning of this, another worker by the name of Dickson who was a relative of Sathishkumar, arrived at the girl’s house on 9 September, 2012. He then started physically and verbally abusing Sathishkumar and the girl’s family members.

When this fight was going on, Moses, a Catholic neighbour, came out and told Dickson not to make so much noise because his baby was ill with chickenpox. However, Dickson, a Hindu, continued scolding Moses and the quarrel escalated when Dickson injured Moses with a knife and then ran away.

By this time Dickson’s father, Renganathen, arrived and tried to rescue his son. However he was beaten by the people who had gathered and some of them followed Dickson to catch him. Both Moses and Renganathan were injured and admitted to the Walimada Government Hospital. They were later transferred to the Badulla General Hospital and after 16 days, on 24 September, 2012, Renganathan died of his injuries. 

Police officers attached to the Uda Pussellawa Police Station without conducting a proper investigation into the case began arresting people at will. They arrested those who had witnessed the event and even some who knew nothing about the incident. To everyone’s surprise they did not arrest Moses who was directly involved in the dispute.

Letchcham Ponnambalam and Anthonysamy Sebastian were arrested on the 25 October 2012. They were tortured and forced to sign a document which implicated them in the murder of Rengunathan. Subsequently they were produced before court.

Apparently someone had ordered Sebastian to be remanded and the police tried to implicate him into the murder by claiming that there was an illegal assembly of people that was never actually held.

Theresiah Stephen (19) was arrested on 20 November, 2012, when he had gone to the court to meet his brother Theresiah Leo (18). He was also tortured and was forced to sign documents. Veeraputhan Sathishkumar was arrested on 26 October, 2012, and was severely tortured before being produced in court on 27 October 2012. Selvaraj Kamendran, Selvaraj Chandrakumar, Anthonysamy Arokiasamy, Theresiah Leo were arrested on 14 October, 2012, by officers attached to the Uvaparanagama Police Station.

All the victims were remanded after being produced before the Magistrate’s Court of Welimada. They were remanded in Badulla Remand Prison almost for a year until 29 October, 2013, and the case BR/699/12 was called 27 times before they were finally released on bail in the High Court of Badulla.

According to the charge sheet, presented at the Magistrate’s Court, they were charged under the Penal Code, Section 140, Penal Code, Section 32 and Penal Code, Section 296, implicating them in the murder of Renganathan. Further they are being accused of attending an unlawful assembly, on 9 September, 2012, which was never held.

The management of the Estate has terminated the services of the victims and their families who were employed for several years and therefore the eight families have no way of living and as the majority of the victims happened to be Catholics the dispute has been given a religious notation by the police. The victims state that they are only suspects and innocent until proved guilty. Therefore they urge that they should be treated equally and that they are totally innocent of the charges.

Victim, Selvaraj Kamendran is married to Lilly Madona and has two sons aged three and five. He was working as a labourer in the Waldimar Estate for almost seven years. Selvaraj Chandrakumar; Kamendran’s brother was married to Danushiya in 2003 and has four children. He has worked in the estate for ten years.

Anthonysamy Arokiasamy who has worked for 12 years in the estate has been married to Saihiyarani since 2004 and has three daughters aged two, five and eight. Theresiah Leo, who had finished his O/L examination, was working at Food City. He had come home at the time of the murder to help his father to build a house. Theresiah Stephen, the brother of Theresiah Leo was not employed. He was living with his parents; Theresiah and Lucia Mary. Veeraputhan Sathishkumar worked as a mason. He married Econica (20) on 9 August, 2012, and has a son of three months.

These victims state that they did not have any involvement with this incident. Further they stress that they have not committed any crime and they all were illegally arrested, detained and tortured by the police officers. Further they were forced to sign documents which were not recorded from them and have no knowledge on the contents. They were forced to sign the documents after severe torture. Further the police officers did not conduct an effective and prompt criminal investigation into the incident of their arrest and violations of their rights. Victims and their family members seek justice and the protection of his rights as enshrined in the Constitution of Sri Lanka.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please send a letter to the authorities expressing your concern about this case and requesting an immediate investigation into the allegations torturing innocent men by the police officers and denying justice and independent inquiry by the police officers. Please request the authorities for prosecution of those proven to be responsible under the criminal law of the country for misusing powers of a state. The officers involved must also be subjected to internal investigations for the breach of the department orders as issued by the police department. Further, please also request the NPC and the IGP to have a special investigation into the malpractices of the police officers for abusing the state officers’ powers.

Please note that the AHRC has also written a separate letter to the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment on this regard.

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