What is silly and what is cruel may be relative. However, what Sarath Kumara Naidos, his wife, Sriyani, his mother, Asilin, his sister, Mangalike, her husband, Neil and his mother, Nandawathie are going through is certainly both silly and cruel by whatever standards.
On the 5th July, while Nandawathie was watching, Sarath Kumara who helping to mix cement at his neighbours house was arrested by a policeman in uniform and another in civilian dress. He was assaulted, put on the floor of a three-wheeler and the officers sat on the seat with their feet on his body. Nandawathie called her daughter and rushed to the nearest police station to find whether Sarath had been brought there. As he was not at that station she and the daughter went to the very next police station which was the Moratuwa Police Station and found him there locked in a cell. He had already been thoroughly beaten. She learned that he was suspected of having stolen some gold items. Thus began an agonizing week for Sarath and his family.
Saraths wife, Sriyani, visited him at the police cell from the 5th July up to the morning of the 13th. Almost every day she visited him three times, carrying morning, noon and evening meals. From the very first day she learned that her husband was being severely assaulted by a group of police officers lead by an officer called Damith. Sometimes he was hung from an overhead beam and beaten. The officers made a simple demand: return the gold you have stolen. Sarath told his wife that after he had been so badly beaten that in order to stop them he admitted to whatever they wanted. But then, they demanded the return of the goods and since he had not stolen anything he was unable to do this. This angered the officers further and they continued to beat him, day in and day out.
The rest of the family members also visited him and, having understood the situation spoke to the officer called Damith and a Superintendent of Police. Their replies were very simple. There is nothing that can be done to a thief but to beat him until he complies with our demands. The only way out was, bring back the gold. The familys repeated question to the officers was, how do we return something we have not taken and is not in our possession. They even suggested a compromise. Saraths two year-year-old son had a necklace. It was all the gold the family possessed and they were willing to give that. But no, Damith and the other officers said they wanted the stolen goods.
Unable to resolve the problem with the police officers the family made complaints to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, the National Police Commission, the Inspector General of Police and the Deputy Inspector General of Police of the area. The Human Rights Commission opened a file with the reference number HRC/3552/08 and promised many times that they would intervene. Adding to all this, the family also sent two lawyers to the police station on several occasions to make representations on their behalf. None of this had any impact. The officers repeated their refrain: bring back the goods. The family went to a former Deputy Inspector General of Police, who after retirement is practicing as a lawyer and he also made a written request for Saraths release, or to produce him in court, which the police are obliged to do within 24 hours of arrest.
After all the pressure the police could not hold him any longer but they found a way to teach Sarath and his family a lesson. When Sarath was produced in court on the 13th the police filed two cases, one for alleged theft and the other for being found with 2,300 milligrams of heroin at 11:30 p.m. on the evening of the 12th. With this second charge the magistrate could not grant Sarath bail and he now also faces the possibility of a death sentence.
The family is faced with two problems. They are being asked to return gold items which they have not taken. Further, Sarath is now charged with the possession of heroin at the very time he was already in the custody of the Moratuwa police, which he was from the 5th to the 13th. It was simply physically impossible on the evening of the 12th for him to be in possession of illegal drugs.
There was no inquiry into whatever allegations that someone might have made about Sarath having stolen some gold items from one of the houses in which he had worked. At the moment of arrest no questions were asked of him. Afterwards also, no questions were asked, but only the demand to give back what he had taken. Of course, what the police officers did is not allowed by the law. The Criminal Procedure Code and the evidence law do not allow this behaviour. Judges hearing many cases before the highest courts of the country have also condemned this kind of behaviour. For example in the case of Angelina Rosanna, a very rich family accused its part time domestic helper, Angeline, of having stolen a gold watch worth Rs. 500,000/= (US$ 5,000). The girl was beaten throughout the night when two officers kept demanding that she return the watch. Years later the Supreme Court found the two officers to have violated the constitution rights of the girl who was innocent. The High Court of Colombo sentenced the two officers to seven years of rigorous imprisonment for having committed the offense of torture. However, none of these things have had any influence in altering the behaviour of the police who have the institutional habit of torturing alleged thieves demanding that they return what they are suspected of having stolen. The law and judicial decisions do not seem to matter. In Saraths case did the law matter in the very least to the officers concerned?
What may be even more agonizing to the family is the fact that what they have experienced is nothing really exceptional. To begin and end inquiries with assaults and beat people up demanding stolen goods is now a normal experience. Even the high ranking police officers they approached asked them quite openly, what do you expect us to do with thieves except beat them. Do you expect us to pour ointment on these people?
Though it is physically impossible for Sarath Kumara Naidos to have been in possession of heroin on the night of the 12th July, he is still in remand prison because that matter of the physical impossibility has to be resolved on some day when a trial takes place, which may be four, five or more years afterwards. The representations made by the family and human rights organisations to the higher police authorities to inquire into the matter has had no effect.
The whole affair is both silly and . However, someone may retort by asking, what is so especially silly or cruel about this particular incident? Similar and worse things happen all the time in all parts of the country. To this retort it is not possible to give any reply except to say that it does not make the situation less silly or less cruel.
