Dear friends,
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes to raise its concern about a mysterious death of a young man and the possible cover-up by his father, who is a police inspector, surrounding the circumstances of the death.
J. A. Upendra Gayan was 23-years-old at the time of his mysterious death on 2 April 2005. He had recently married Shakila Abeysekera despite considerable opposition from his father, Samson Jayasuriya, a police inspector. Upendra died at his boarding house which he shared with another male friend, allegedly as a result of an exploding gas cylinder. Subsequently the police said that the body had been burned beyond recognition.
Since her husbands death Ms. Abeysekera has strongly suspected her father-in-laws involvement in the incident and that he was misusing his police powers to conceal vital facts pertaining to Upendras death. Her suspicions had been aroused by the following incidents:
1. Mr. Jayasuriya had prevented the police from informing Ms. Abeysekera about her husbands demise; therefore it was only after considerable delay that she learned of her husbands death.
2. Mr. Jayasuriya had with undue haste identified the burned body as belonging to his son, conducted the funeral rites and buried the body.
3. There was no independent evidence supporting the alleged explosion of a gas cylinder.
4. Witness accounts note that a little while before the death occurred Upendras friend and room mate, Inesh Manaheva had left the boarding house.
5. Although Inesh was arrested as a suspect in the case, the police soon after released him allegedly at the insistence of Mr. Jayasuriya and Inesh had since disappeared.
6. The police attempted to conduct the inquest by misrepresenting to the court that the deceased was unmarried. It was only when Ms. Abeysekera specifically brought this to the notice of the Magistrate that she was allowed to participate in the inquest proceedings.
The Magistrate ordered a DNA examination of the body. However, to date this has not been done and Ms. Abeysekera says that the police are intentionally shirking their responsibilities in complying with the court order. So much so that Ms. Abeysekeras lawyer is in the process of urging the court to issue another order for the DNA examination.
Regarding Inesh Manaheva, Ms. Abeysekera says that immediately prior to this incident, her husband had received several telephone calls to his mobile phone from Inesh. However, the Welikada police had given a wrong address for Inesh and thus the courts were unable to locate him. When this was discovered, the village head had obtained the correct address and visited his home only to be informed by his father that Inesh had migrated to Australia.
Ms. Abeysekera also says that soon after she requested the court for the aforementioned DNA report to be produced, she began receiving anonymous phone calls to both her home and office in which she was threatened not to pursue the matter any further, if not she too would meet with the same fate as that of her husband. Subsequently, she had traced the call as originating from Aitkin Spence Company in Colombo the firm in which her deceased husband had been previously employed. Though she has brought these matters to the attention of the CID who is in charge of investigations, to date no action has been taken by the police.
Ms. Abeysekera then sought the help of Janasansadaya to officially complain in writing on her behalf to the relevant authorities to help bring justice to this case and to prevent the continuation of the harassing and threatening telephone calls. She is at a loss as to why the police have been so inactive in her husbands case and wonders whether the intentional delay is due to her father-in-laws intervention.
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SAMPLE LETTER
Dear ________,
SRI LANKA: Failure of the police to investigate mysterious death of 23-year-old
Name of deceased: J.A. Upendra Gayan, 23 and married to Shakila Abeysekera, mysteriously died at a boarding house in Rajagiriya
Name of alleged perpetrators: Inspector of Police Samson Jayasuriya (deceaseds father) attached to the Wennappuwa Assistant Superintendent of Polices office, the Welikada police and the CID in charge of investigations
Date of incident: 2 April 2005
I write to voice my concern at the mysterious death of J. A. Upendra Gayan who died on 2 April 2005. Though the death was initially treated as an accident after the explosion of a gas cyclinder, suspicions have since been raised regarding this and the possibility that Upendra may have in fact been murdered.
Since her husbands death Ms. Abeysekera has strongly suspected her father-in-laws involvement in the incident and that he was misusing his powers, as a police inspector, to conceal vital facts pertaining to Upendras death. Her suspicions had been aroused by the following incidents:
1. Mr. Jayasuriya had prevented the police from informing Ms. Abeysekera about her husbands demise; therefore it was only after considerable delay that she learned of her husbands death.
2. Mr. Jayasuriya had with undue haste identified the burned body as belonging to his son, conducted the funeral rites and buried the body.
3. There was no independent evidence supporting the alleged explosion of a gas cylinder.
4. Witness accounts note that a little while before the death occurred Upendras friend and room mate, Inesh Manaheva had left the boarding house.
5. Although Inesh was arrested as a suspect in the case, the police soon after released him allegedly at the insistence of Mr. Jayasuriya and Inesh had since disappeared.
6. The police attempted to conduct the inquest by misrepresenting to the court that the deceased was unmarried. It was only when Ms. Abeysekera specifically brought this to the notice of the Magistrate that she was allowed to participate in the inquest proceedings.
Though the Magistrate ordered a DNA examination of the body, to date this has not been done and Ms. Abeysekera says that the police are intentionally shirking their responsibilities in complying with the court order. So much so that Ms. Abeysekeras lawyer is in the process of urging the court to issue another order for the DNA examination.
It is now known that Inesh Manaheva made several telephone calls to Upendra prior to the incident. It has also been learned that Inesh has since migrated to Australia.
Ms. Abeysekera also says that soon after she requested the court for the aforementioned DNA report to be produced, she began receiving anonymous phone calls to both her home and office in which she was threatened not to pursue the matter any further, if not she too would meet with the same fate as that of her husband. Subsequently, she had traced the call as originating from Aitkin Spence Company in Colombo the firm in which her deceased husband had been previously employed. Though she has brought these matters to the attention of the CID who is in charge of investigations, to date no action has been taken by the police.
Ms. Abeysekera has written letters of complaint to the relevant authorities in Sri Lanka but has yet to witness their intervention on her behalf. She is therefore concerned that justice will not be obtained in her husbands case.
In light of this, and to ensure that justice is achieved, I call on your intervention. An impartial and thorough investigation must be immediately launched into this case to ascertain what actually occurred, to determine if IP Samson is in fact delaying or unlawfully interfering in the proceedings and to inquire into why Inesh was permitted to migrate to Australia despite being a suspect in Upendras death. It should also be established exactly who is making the threatening phone calls to Ms. Aberysekera and on whose instructions they are acting on. In the meanwhile, and to ensure her safety, Ms. Aberysekera must be afforded full and appropriate protection.
I trust that you will share in my concern regarding this case and will act accordingly.
Yours sincerely,
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PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTER TO:
1. Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse
President
Socialist Democratic Republic of Sri Lanka
C/- Office of the President
Temple Trees
150, Galle Road
Colombo 3
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94 11 2472100 / +94 11 2446657 (this is the contact for the Secretary to the President)
Email: secretary@presidentsoffice.lk
2. National Human Rights Commission
No. 36, Kynsey Road
Colombo 8
SRI LANKA
Tel: +94 11 2 694 925 / 673 806
Fax: +94 11 2 694 924 / 696 470
E-mail: sechrc@sltnet.lk
3. Mr. Chandra Fernando
Inspector General of Police
New Secretariat
Colombo 1
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94 11 2 440440/327877
4. National Police Commission
3rd Floor, Rotunda Towers,
109 Galle Road
Colombo 03
SRI LANKA
Tel: +94 11 2 395310
Fax: +94 11 2 395867
E-mail: polcom@sltnet.lk
5. Mr. K. C. Kamalasabesan
Attorney General
Attorney General's Department
Colombo 12
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94 11 2 436421
6. Mr. Philip Alston
Special Rapporteur on Extra-judicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions
Attn: Lydie Ventre
Room 3-016
OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 22 917 9155
Fax: +41 22 917 9006 (general)
Email: lventre@ohchr.org
Thank you.
Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ahrchk@ahrchk.org)
