With the exhumation of Wasim Thajudeen’s body, and the start of the reinvestigation into the case a large body of information has been placed before the public by various sources. Therefore, it would be quite natural for the people to want to have truthful answers to many of the questions have been raised through such information. Some of these questions are as follows…
1. Is the alleged accident a fake one, or was there a genuine accident?
2. If the accident is a fake, as it is assumed by many, then who caused the fake accident?
3. Was there in fact an accident, or was it only an appearance of an accident made to take place?
4. What were the injuries caused by the accident if such an accident took place at all, then what are the other injuries that have been caused prior to the accident?
5. In whose car was the deceased body found in? Was it his own car, which he generally used, or is it someone else’s car?
6. What is the link between the car in which his body was found in, and the vehicle that was reported to have been taken into custody, and which is said to have formally belonged to the Red Cross Office and had later been gifted to the ‘Siriliya Saviya’ social services programme?
7. Was the burning of the car caused due to the accident or was the fire caused externally?
8. Was the victim dead at the time the vehicle caught fire, or has the fire had anything to do with his death?
9. As it has been reported, if there are other injuries found on the body – several fractured ribs, several teeth being broken and several other injuries – then why did the Judicial Medical Officer who performed the first inquiry, ignore these injuries?
10. If the accident was in fact staged, then who caused the injuries that led to his death and what is the history of disputes which led to the conflicts, and which ultimately resulted in Thajudeen’s death?
All these, are questions of public interest, as Thajudeen’s death is no longer viewed purely as a private matter of one particular individual but is a matter arising out of the way certain people wielded power and such an incident could have been caused only because of the possibilities for the abuse of power that existed at the time.
The very characterisation of the death as an accident in the original report to court can be reasonably assumed to have been made possible due to the possibilities for such abuse of power at the time.
The impression that has been created in the public mind is that similar to several other deaths that occurred during the previous regime; of the former Sunday Leader Editor Lasantha Wickramatunga; of several politicians such as Nadarajah Raviraj; of the cartoonist Prageeth Ekneligoda who disappeared; and cases of many young students who were abducted, kept in Navy custody and made to disappear thereafter; and in many such other crimes that were a product of the political circumstances of the time, the death of Thajudeen can only be explained in terms of abuse of power and the political patronage given to criminals.
The sudden revelation of the suspicious circumstances relating to Thajudeen’s death arising out the re-investigation of the case, has in fact provided opportunities for the public to probe into matters that threaten their security during the many previous years.
Therefore, the authorities owe an investigation, as thorough as possible, which if required should go beyond the investigations by forensic pathologists into other forms of forensic investigations, relevant to this case. In other fields of forensic science, there are experts in the country and where they are not available expertise could be obtained from more developed nations.
