SRI LANKA: A complainant in a corruption case is at risk from threats from the police

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information of threats and harassment made against a man by police officers since May 2008 in Sri Lanka. He would not pay money to them. He has been repeatedly arrested and falsely charged after he refused to give them any bribes.

CASE DETAILS:

Rajagopalan Manalan was considered a successful business man in his village where he ran a profitable grocery shop. He was also noted for the sale of ‘kassippu’ (unlawfully manufactured liquor).

According to Rajagopalan, Mr. Kariyawasam, the Officer-in-Charge (OIC) and other officers of the Welipanna Police Station demanded money payment as bribes from him to allow him to continue his sale of illegal liquor. In addition, they also demanded that he bear the expenses of other gratuities like pumping fuel into their vehicles and providing laborers to do work on their houses.

The OIC demanded that Rajagopalan send men to work in his house at Horana. He also asked him to send 12 manual workers to work on the land at Thebuwana belonging to the former Inspector General Police (IGP) Victor Perera and to provide 3 tractor loads of turf (grass) for the land of the former IGP. Moreover, Rajagopalan had to pay all these workers their daily wages.

Rajagopalan also found out that as he fulfilled their demands, they kept increasing. He had undergone continuous harassment by the police for about 3 to 4 months before he lodged a complaint in September 2008 and decided to stop his unlawful business of the sale of illicit liquor. However, the police officers did not want to end their profitable relationship with Rajagopalan. Thus, they continued to demand bribes. Rajagopalan decided not to oblige the officers any more.

On May 5, 2008, Ragagopalan was arrested on a charge of possession of illegal liquor and produced in Mathugama Magistrate’s court (Case No. 2769). He was threatened by the police that if he did not plead guilty, more charges would be imposed against him. So, he pleaded guilty and paid a fine of Rs. 30,000/= (around USD 278).

Even after this, the officers continued to harass him still demanding bribes. On July 11, Rajagopalan went to meet the OIC with his lawyer Mr. Munasinghe as a result of many messages being sent to him by the OIC to come and meet him. On seeing Rajagopalan, the OIC declared that there were several complaints against him and took him into custody without concrete explanation or concrete evidence.

Rajagopalan was released on bail that night and asked to appear in the Mathugama Magistrates court on July 15 where he was falsely charged with the possession of 35 bottles of illegal liquor (Case No. 31750). At the court hearing, he decided to plead not guilty. He was released on bail a second time.

At 7:30pm on September 7, two officers of the Welipanna Police, Disanayake and Premadasa came to Rajagopalan’s house and demanded that he go to the police station since the OIC wanted to see him. Rajagopalan refused, was threatened and forcibly taken to the police station where he was detained. On the following day, he was produced before the court on charges of being in possession of 20 bottles of illegal liquor. The police were against his being released on bail insisting that there were communal clashes of two ethnics groups, Sinhalese and Tamils,due to his unlawful business. He was not afforded bail but later by submitting a motion to the Court, he pleaded guilty and paid a fine of Rs. 25,000/= (around USD 232). The court issued a binding-over order for 5 years.

On 10 and 11 September, the officers Premadasa and Dissanayake came a second time searching his house. However, when the officers came to search, they did not produce a search warrant.

On September 12, Rajagopalan made a written complaint to the Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission, National Police Commission, Inspector General of Police, Police Headquarters and the Direct General of the Bribery Commission.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

The case highlights a common scenario with regard to the illegally manufactured liquor business in Sri Lanka. It shows the extent to which some officers of the police take advantage of the situation to make personal profits, stooping to bribery and corrupt practices. And when these easy profits stop for whatever reason, they resort to arbitrary arrests, fabrication of cases and other infringements of fundamental rights.

The AHRC has issued urgent appeals in cases of corruption where the police abused their position to extract bribes from people by torture and fabrication of charges (Please refer to AHRC-UAC-214-2008, AHRC-UAC-015-2008, UAC-302-2007). Lack of investigation is another area of concern (UAC-313-2007).

Please also refer our previous statement regarding several allegations against the former IGP (AHRC-STM-267-2008).

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write to the authorities listed below urging them to take necessary action to stop threats and harassment by the police. Please also urge them to investigate the allegation of corruption so that those responsible are prosecuted and punished according to the law.

Please be informed that the AHRC has also written separate letters to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Question of Torture calling for intervention in this case.

To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER