SRI LANKA: A man and his family are tortured by police

Dear friends, 

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information about an alleged incident of torture involving the Kamburupitiya Police on 5 March 2009. Ramanayakage Nishantha Perera was badly beaten, falsely charged and sent to prison after lodging a complaint against his neighbours during a land dispute. He was not given medical treatment despite it being recommended by two doctors, and his pain in jail was prolonged with the denial of bail, and further torture. Perera’s family have been harassed and threatened by the same officers. The case exemplifies a bullying form of brutality currently flourishing in and around police stations in Sri Lanka. 

CASE DETAILS: (According to the victims) 

The first victim: On March 5, 2009 Ramanayakage Nishantha Perera was called to the Kamburupitiya Police Station regarding a call he’d made the day before to 119, the emergency police service in Colombo. Perera had reported that when he went to lodge a complaint about a land dispute with his neighbour, officers at Kamburupitiya station were biased and literally chased him away. 

Perera went to the station at 9am with his mother, Seetha Wijenayake Pathirana and his grandfather, Wijenayake Pathinage Karolis. The opposing party, Yakkalage Thushara, and his mother were also there and they were all called in to the room of Officer In Charge (OIC) Kaldera, where Thushara and his mother were offered chairs. Perera and his party were left standing. 

According to the victim, Kaldera then examined the deed of ownership presented by Perera and started to verbally abuse the complainants, shouting that he can’t solve such matters, that they could ‘complain to Colombo or any place’ but must give the land to their neighbours or he would beat them until ‘the milk you drank from your mother comes out of your mouth’. He then brought a pole–thicker than the handle of a broom and about 3m long–from the next room and personally started to beat Perera with it, on his head and his body. According to the victim, Sub Inspector (SI) Premadasa and a sergeant, later identified as a court sergeant, kicked him from behind; he took a particularly heavy blow to his head when he fell against a wall. The OIC challenged the mother and grandfather to ‘try and do something’ if they could. 

After this assault the OIC forced Perera to sign a piece of paper—also signed by the other party—then kneel on the ground facing his neighbours with his hands clasped in a beseeching manner. He then told SI Premadasa and the court sergeant to take Perera to hospital. It was about 11am and Perera was taken by five police officers in a jeep to the Aadapana Government Hospital, Kamburupitiya, in handcuffs. 

On arrival SI Premadasa reportedly spoke to a doctor in private and when Perera was called the doctor did not examine him, but asked if he was in pain. The victim said that he was in severe pain; his body and head were swollen and that he had vomited twice. The doctor told SI Premadasa that Perera should be warded, but after speaking with the OIC by phone, SI Premadasa took Perera back to the police station. 

At around 3:30pm at the station Perera was told to give a statement regarding the land dispute, and he was charged by Kaldera with obstructing police duties. At about 5pm Perera was taken by jeep with three other police officers and produced before the magistrate of Matara. Attorney-at-law Sisira Kumara represented Perera, and informed the magistrate that he had been assaulted by police and needed medical treatment. The magistrate ordered that Perera be given medical treatment and that a judicial medical report be obtained. 

However instead Perera was taken to Matara Prison. While handing him to the prison officers, the court sergeant reportedly told them that the police had assaulted Perera because he was trying to claim ownership to land belonging to a relative of the police, and that the prison officers should also give him a beating. After being admitted at the gate Perera was indeed beaten by the prison guards before being told that he’d had enough punishment that day. 

That night he was put to an overcrowded ward known as the ‘dal wattuwa’ (mesh ward), and was given no food. Perera was in such pain he couldn’t sleep. The next morning he was taken to another room and stripped, where he believes he was deliberately humiliated on the pretext of prison procedure: taking measurements and recording birthmarks. The officers used abusive language, and he was given a number, 501. Perera was then taken to the prison hospital where he had to sleep on the floor because there were no available beds. 

On March 9, after three days in prison Perera was examined by the prison doctor. Though the swelling across his body had gone down the doctor asked him to be taken immediately to Matara Hospital for intensive treatment. He was taken by two prison guards by bus and shown to an outpatient doctor who ordered that Perera be warded immediately. The guards told Perera that they would admit him to the ward, but that he should ‘support’ them with some cash. Perera then used one of the guard’s mobile phones to talk to his home and tell them to bring the requested Rs 1,000 in bribes. Perera’s wife brought Rs. 700, which was given to the guards. 

Perera received treatment for five days in ward two of the Matara Hospital. On 14 March he was discharged and taken back to Matara Prison, where he was put in the ‘Maha wattuwa’ (big ward), and denied the medicine prescribed to him by the hospital. 

On 17 March he was produced at the Matara Magistrates’ Court, represented by Attorney-at-law K.A. Jayantha, however police opposed bail and he was taken back to the prison. This happened again on 31 March. On 4 April Perera was released on a surety bail of Rs. 50,000 and personal bail of Rs. 50,000.

The second victim: Perera’s wife Kavulpana Polgastheniyage Ashoka Pushpalatha (to be referred to as Ashoka) reports that when Perera was assaulted and imprisoned on May 5 she went to the Kamburupitiya police station with her mother-in-law and the couple’s daughter. Since they were not allowed to see Perera, they phoned the National Police Commission Matara branch to complain, visited their office and then made formal statements at the Matara Senior Superintendent’s office. They were then able to see Perera at the Kamburupitiya station later that day, and report seeing him sitting on the floor of a prison cell in severe pain. Perera told them that he had been inhumanly assaulted by OIC Kaldera. 

Ashoka was at home on 18 March at about 6pm when three officers from the Kamburupitiya police station (Kaldera, an officer called Anjula and another) arrived in a three wheeler, shouting for the door to be opened and for Ashoka to come forward. When she did, the officers forced themselves inside the house. According to the victim OIC Kaldera shouted that he had ‘the power to enter any house’ and gripped her by the neck in front of her 16-year-old son. He then berated her for making her complain to the NPC, making taunting comments, while threatening that if they went to his superiors again, the family would be locked inside the house and killed. He declared that they did not know ‘what kind of a man he was’. When Ashoka’s son shouted during the assault, he was also taunted with the instruction to get his horoscope, for it would read that he would soon be going to prison like his father, and would be prevented from finishing school. 

The third victim: Ashoka’s brother J.D. Samantha, his wife and their child came to stay with and support Ashoka and her children, who were now too afraid to live alone. However OIC Kaldera returned to the house, calling for ‘the stranger’ who was living there to show himself. Kaldera demanded to see Samantha’s National Identity Card, and then took him to the station in a three wheeler, without making any charges. On the way Samantha reports that the OIC boasted of various kinds of abuses he had inflicted on Sri Lankan citizens, including women and children. 

At Kamburupitiya Police Station Samantha had to wait for two hours, and had abuse shouted at him whenever he tried to move or inquire. When he saw his sister and niece enter the OIC’s office he insisted on joining them, and was again insulted by Kaldera, who told him that Perera would not be allowed bail. Samantha was told to leave his sister’s house immediately, otherwise he would be arrested, and Ashoka would be fined Rs 5,000. When they left the station Samantha was told to return, which he has not done for fear of illegal arrest and torture. 

On 8 April 2009, three separate written complaints signed by the three victims setting out the details of the incident was sent to the Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, Chairman of the National Police Commission, the Inspector General of Police, and the Senior Superintendent of Police Matara 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: 

This long list of rights violated and crimes committed by police officers against just one family points to a system that has stopped working. In this one case we see police abusing their power, both randomly and for the material gain of other civilians; collusion between station officers and prison officers in carrying out extrajudicial punishments; and the denial of a man’s right to health used as a form of torture. We see police able to file a false charge and continually deny bail. The OIC’s complete dismissal of a court order shows the breakdown of authority and his dismissal of doctors’ recommendations shows a breakdown of accountability and judgment. The stalking and abuse of complainants—in this case women and minors–at home is a particular low point. This case is a good example of what happens when checks and balances are abandoned, and unrestricted power is allowed to corrupt figures of authority. 

It should be noted that Sri Lankan citizens are protected against torture and arbitrary arrest in sections 11, 12 and 13 of the Democratic Constitution of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka became party to the United Nations Convention against Torture and Cruel and Inhuman Treatment in 1994, at which point it became obliged to seriously punish any perpetrator of such crimes with at least seven years imprisonment or a minimum penalty of Rs 10,000. Custodial violence and denying an injured person medical treatment are both forms of torture. 

You will also find under the Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment adopted by General Assembly resolution 43/173 in 1988, that Principle 24 enshrines the right of detained persons to a prompt and proper medical examination and any resulting necessary care, whenever necessary. 

Apart from the above legislation, the Human Rights Commission and the National Police Commission has been set up to provide redress to victims of torture. The mandate of both these mechanisms is to take steps to minimise torture and to be of service to victims of torture. 

SUGGESTED ACTION: 

Please write to the local authorities listed below and demand that due disciplinary and legal action be taken against OIC Kaldera and other perpetrators working at Kamburupitiya Police Station and Matara Prison. Please ask for the intervention of the National Human Rights Commission and National Police Commission to ensure that the victims receive adequate compensation. 

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

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