Sri Lanka's police chief found guilty for torture of detainee
President Ranil Wickremesinghe's Acting Inspector General choice, Deshabandhu Tennakoon has been indicted on charges of violating the fundamental rights of a citizen by illegal arrest, detention, and torture at the Mirihana police station in 2011.
In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka found him guilty along with three others of gross human rights violations. It was proved in the court that he instructed his officials to carry out the brutalities.
His appointment to the country’s top police post has been severely criticized both locally and outside.
The top court ruled the fundamental rights of a former soldier in the military were violated by illegally keeping him in detention. The court further ordered compensation to be paid to the victim by Deshabandu Tennakoon, a military officer, and two police officials.
The government was also ordered to pay a compensation of 100,000 LKR by the court.
While instructing the government to owe responsibility for this, the court said it doesn’t want to impose the burden on the public for the crimes perpetrated by the officers. “Should the public who are paying taxes out of their income pay compensation for the crimes done by these people also”? the Supreme Court questioned.
This judgment was pronounced by the Supreme Court on the 14th of December on a petition by former soldier Ranjith Sumangala.
At the time of the crime, Deshabandhu Tennakoon who was the Police Superintendent of the Nugegoda area along with the Police Officer in charge of the emergency response team of the Mirihana Police Pathiya Jayasinge, retired police officers Bandara and Sergeant Major Ajit Wanasundara have all been directed to pay individually a compensation of half a million LKR as compensation to the victim-the petitioner.
The court further directed to take disciplinary action against three police officers and ordered a copy of the judgment to be sent to the National Police Commission and the Attorney General to implement it.
Background
The petitioner Ranjith Sumangala says he was arrested on the 18th of December 2010 by the Military officer Ajit Wanasundara and the police officers Bandara and Pathiya Jayasinge from the Mirihana Police who came in a three-wheeler and subsequently taken to a cemetery in Dambara and tortured, he told the court of the brutal ordeal he underwent.
In his testimony, the petitioner spoke of the brutality he underwent at the hands of the police led by the present acting police chief of the country Deshabandhu Tennakoon. “I state that, after drying the clothes, we were taken back to the previously said building. Thereafter, we were handcuffed and they made us sit under the tables. We were not given anything to eat or drink that day. Each received a panadol tablet. We stayed under the table that night too. While we were there, a higher-ranked police officer came to the place where we were. He asked those officers who they were, and then those officers said, Sir, these are the fellows of the Sergeant Major's case. " There is a cattle thief among them,” Ranjith Sumangala said in his testimony to the court.
The petitioner also described in detail the sexual abuse he faced at the hands of Deshabandhu Tennakoon who was Superintendent of Police then.
“I state that, then the said higher-ranked officer stripped us naked and kept us in order. All four of us were beaten around the entire body with a three-wheel rubber band and while being beaten, we were ordered to rub Siddhalepa on our genitals. We applied it with difficulty. He repeatedly thrashed us when we were in pain with smarting”.
Ranjith Sumangala spoke of his unbearable physical and mental torture in his witness statement to the court, which speaks of the gross human rights violation perpetuated by the present Acting police chief of the nation while he was a superintendent of police.
“I state that, at that moment, he received a phone call. He ordered the other police officers not to let us dress, and to keep us in this manner for about 2 hours, stating that he would be back again. Then an officer who was there said that he was not the type of officer who usually hits people, but he too thrashed us due to our ill fate. I came to know later that the said police officer was Superintendent of Police Deshabandhu Tennakoon”.
Noticing the inconsistent reports of the respondents the Supreme Court accepted the statement of the petitioner Ranjith Sumangala along with the injuries on him due to the torture and the testimonies of others. The top court also accepted the report of the Matale General Hospital Judicial Medical Officer Ajith Jayesena which confirmed the torture in deciding the outcome of the case.
