by Third Eye
Anura Senanayake
Complaints against former Senior DIG Anura Senanayake are now piling at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), The Sunday Leader learns.
Senanayake was recently taken into custody for allegedly suppressing evidence related to the murder case of former Sri Lanka Rugby and Havelocks Captain, Wasim Thajudeen.
One such complaint that has been made against Senanayake is on his alleged involvement in the murder of 42-year-old Ramasamy Prabakaran, the owner of Panama Traders, an electronics store cum showroom within the Majestic City Complex in Bambalapitiya. Better known as Majestic City Prabha, Ramasamy Prabakaran was abducted and murdered in 2012.
On February 11, 2012 the Tamil businessman of Indian origin was abducted near his residence on Canal Bank Road, Wellawatte in the presence of his Sinhala wife and daughter.
“The armed men were hiding in our compound, surrounded by a brick wall. They grabbed my husband by the neck and dragged him towards the vehicle. He was screaming for help as they sped away,” his wife Shiromi was quoted as telling the newspapers at the time.
The abductor squad comprising seven persons had reportedly been brandishing assault rifles and shot guns while bundling Prabakaran into a white van that was seen speeding off in the direction of Dehiwela.
Many people in the vicinity had seen the incident but were unable to intervene as they suspected the armed abductors in the white van were members functioning with the approval of upper echelons of the Defence establishment.
Prabakaran’s wife Shiromi, who had noted down the white van registration number and complained to the Wellawatte Police, was told that the number plates were false and the vehicle could not be traced.
A report on the incident published in news websites at the time stated that Prabakaran had been taken into custody in May 2009 as a suspected LTTE member and detained for 28 months. During interrogation he was brutally assaulted and tortured by senior Police officers.
Finally he was released in September 2011 due to lack of evidence and all charges against him were dropped.
Prabakaran however had filed a fundamental rights petition in the Supreme Court alleging unlawful arrest and detention. The Supreme Court granted leave to proceed and the hearing was scheduled for February 13, 2012.
The businessman, who was abducted two days before the fundamental rights petition was to be heard in courts, had also filed a motion separately seeking release of his business premises, which were kept sealed under Police guard despite the courts acquitting him of all charges.
When the FR petition was filed, Counsel for the Petitioner, Romesh de Silva P.C. with K. S. Rathnavel, cited Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Vaas Gunawardena, Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Anura Senanayake, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), and the Attorney General (AG), together with eight others as Respondents.
The petition had stated that Petitioner Prabakaran, a businessman involved in the marketing and sale of electrical and household items at the Majestic City complex, was a frequent traveller abroad. On or about May 16, 2009, while he was away in India, Police personnel from Wellawatta Police Station, together with the CID, visited his residence and conducted a search, following which they had taken documents and material related to his family and friends.
He had stated that, as they could not find any evidence to substantiate the purpose for which they had come, they had taken his wife to the Wellawatta Police Station and questioned her for a long time.
The Petitioner has said that, after his wife had informed the Police that her husband would return to the country and make himself available at the Station, they had released her.
Prabakaran had said that on May 21, 2009, he was interrogated by one of the Respondents, SP Mahin Dole together with other officers, of how well he knew Col. Ranjith Chandrasiri Perera of the Sri Lanka Army and what connections he had with him. The petitioner, while denying all allegations made against him, had stated that he was a friend of the Colonel for the past 20 years and that he was a neighbour of one of his relatives in Bandarawela.
The petitioner was then taken by SSP Vaas Gunawardena to the CCD and was allegedly assaulted with an iron rod in the most inhuman and degrading manner, where he was injured over most parts of his body, including his private parts. He had further stated that on May 24, 2009, personnel from the CCD and SIS had entered his shop for another search and destroyed most of the goods to the value of about Rs. 35 million.
He had said that cruel torture was carried out on him almost every day while he was in police custody. He had also claimed that the CCD had taken most of his documents and also the van he was using, which he had purchased on lease basis. The petitioner had further said that, after the initial date, he was not taken to Court, but the Magistrate visited him in custody. On the relevant case dates, the Petitioner had said that, even after the Magistrate ordered medical attention for him, the CID had not complied.
Finally when the case was taken up at the Mt. Lavinia Courts, the State Counsel had informed Court that there was no incriminating evidence to keep him in custody and that in the absence of incriminating evidence, they were not proceeding with the case, and that the necessary papers would be forwarded to the Magistrates’ Court.
When the papers had not been delivered on two successive occasions, Mt. Lavinia Magistrate Nirosha Fernando had directed that the Petitioner be released on September 16 that year, as there were no grounds for his continued detention.
In a separate development a motion was filed in the Mt. Lavinia Magistrate’s Court by businessman Prabakaran, stating that, despite a previous Court order acquitting him of all charges brought against him by the CID, his business premises were still sealed and guarded by the Bambalapitiya Police.
Prabakaran was reportedly accused of being an LTTE supporter, because he had known Colonel Ranjith Perera who was accused of being an LTTE supporter.
In his defence, he had claimed that he had known the Colonel for over 20 years, as a neighbour of a relative in Bandarawela. He was detained by the CCD for 20 months and brutally assaulted, which was supplemented by a complete statement by the JMO of the injuries he had received during his detention.
He had claimed at the time that, during his detention, his house was ransacked, documents seized and business premises sealed. The case was heard at the Mt. Lavinia Magistrate’s Court, where he was acquitted on September 16, 2011 of all charges as there was no evidence to prove the allegations.
His complaint is that, even after the Court order was delivered, his business premises was still sealed and under police guard.
It is against this backdrop of excessive action by the Police against Prabakaran and the victim resorting to legal action against the Police that the Tamil businessman was abducted.
Prabakaran had also complained to the United Nations of how he was tortured while he was detained at the New Magazine prison.