SRI LANKA: Illegal arrest, detention and degrading treatment of a couple by the Kandana Police

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from a reliable source regarding the illegal arrest and detention of a couple by the Kandana Police who humiliated and harassed them mainly due to racial bias on 26 October 2007. Accordingly, the police visited their house at night, and after searching the premises, took the victims into police custody. No reason for the arrests was given. They were detained at the station until the early hours of the morning and interrogated at length.  The police allegedly insulted them for being ‘Tamil’ and accused the victims of aiding and abetting terrorist activities. They also allegedly threatened to fabricate a case against them.

CASE DETAILS:

On 26 October 2007 around 11:45 pm Manjula Loganayagam (36) and her husband T.K. Rajkumar were at home when they heard a three wheel vehicle passing to and fro several times on the road adjoining their house. This made Ms. Loganayagam apprehensive because there had been several thefts in her neighbourhood in recent times. She opened the bedroom window and saw a three wheel vehicle stop in front of her house its driver alighting from the vehicle and looking around searchingly. Ms. Loganayagam inquired from him, what he was looking for. The man replied that he was from the police and was looking for a person named ‘Sivashankar’. Still suspicious, Ms. Loganayagam asked him what police station he came from and he said, ‘Kandana Police’.

Soon thereafter a policeman in uniform got down from the vehicle and demanded to know whether the victim was a ‘Tamil’ or a ‘Sinhalese’. She said she was of Tamil ethnicity. He asked what her father’s name was to which she replied, that her father was deceased. The policeman barraged her with several other questions which she had patiently answered. The police then demanded to search the premises though no search warrant was produced. However aware of the enormous powers vested with the police and armed forces under the current emergency regulations including conducting random searches, she helplessly obliged. No sooner the search began the policemen noticed her pet dogs and cats in the house and scolded her for having ‘animals running all over the house’. She reminded them that it was she who bore the cost of maintaining her pets and as such they of no trouble to anyone else. The uniformed policeman (who she later discovered was Sub Inspector (SI) Punchibanda) viciously kicked at her dog and demanded to see her and her husband’ national identity cards. The documents were handed over but not satisfied the policeman demanded their birth certificates, other documents and also questioned her husband.

At this point, Ms. Loganayagam asked for the policeman’s identification, but he replied her with an insult.  An argument had ensued after which a policeman in civvies (she later discovered he was Police Constable (PC) Jayasinghe) threatened to arrest them and take them to the police station. Immediately SI Punchibanda telephoned the Officer in Charge (OIC) of the Kandana Police Station and saying the couple ‘looked suspicious’, obtained permission to take them into custody. According to the victims by this time, the police had searched the entire house and premises but did not find anything suspicious. But the policemen went to the top floor of the house and PC Jayasinghe pointed to the Shell Gas Company situated nearby.

A little while later a police jeep arrived. The victims were taken to the Kandana Police Station and produced before the OIC. SI Punchibanda alleged, the Shell Gas Company could be targeted from the victims’ house. Then he showed the victims’ ID cards to the OIC who asked Ms. Loganayagam who the man (her husband) was. She replied, “husband”, but SI Punchibanda accused her of not mentioning this fact before and also accused her of maintaining an illicit relationship with a man she now claimed to be her husband.

According to the victims, the police also accused them of: 
Providing information (to terrorists) to attack the Shell Gas Company;
Building their house, to enable a mortar attack on the gas company;
Using a fraudulent assessment number for their house;
Maintaining a brothel at their house—as the house contained more than three rooms, and;
Having a house full of dogs so as to discourage people from entering it.

The victims were then taken to the crimes branch of the police station and interrogated at length. PC Jayasinghe threatened to filed cases against them; he shouted that it was because of ‘Tamils’ like the victims that the police were overworked and could not get any sleep at night. He also instructed a Woman Police Constable (WPC) to record Ms. Loganayagam’s details including (but not limited to) value of their house, details of her work place, parents and other family members, private money transactions, date of marriage, and how and when she met her husband. The victim says she refused to answer questions that were of a personal and confidential nature.

Meanwhile PC Jayasinghe took it upon himself to record the statement of Mr. Rajkumar but he purposefully delayed in doing so until about 3:45 am. Then as Mr. Rajkumar was not fluent in the Sinhala language, Ms. Loganayagam was told to interpret to him. But even while recording the statement the scolding and insulting of the victims continued. Finally done, PC Jayasinghe proclaimed he did not believe a word they said and accused them of spinning yarns (baila gahanawa). He also threatened to lock them up until the next day when he would fabricate a case against them and haul them up in court.

Eventually the victims were ordered to sign their statements and go home.  As a parting shot, PC Jayasinghe had allegedly boasted that he was from Police Intelligence and had filed many cases against Tamil people like the victims. He also accused Ms. Loganayagam of being ‘snobbish’ and said that women like her were a ‘problem to the nation’. He said it was her ‘uppity attitude’ that prompted him to bring the victims to the police station — meaning, that this was to punish her for not affording due reverence to him rather than because there was a reasonable suspicion that the victims has committed an offence.

The ordeal over, Ms. Loganayagam has now complained in writing to the authorities concerned about the illegal arrest, detention, humiliation, harassment and racial bias by the Kandana Police. She has requested that prompt and thorough investigations are conducted into the incident and legal and disciplinary action be taken against the policemen who behaved in such a shameful and disgraceful manner.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write to the relevant authorities listed below and urge them to take immediate legal and disciplinary action against the policemen concerned, who allegedly illegally arrested and detained the victims as well as humiliated and harassed them mainly due to racial bias. In order to prevent future such incidents, please also urge the Sri Lanka Police to educate its officers that fundamental rights guaranteed under the Sri Lankan Constitution equally applied to all Sri Lankan citizens irrespective of their ethnicity.

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