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Baseball bats and bicycle chains: Ministers' sons in disco devilry
By Chris Kamalendran
Sons of two cabinet ministers were reportedly involved in an attack on a group of relatives of a non-cabinet minister and their friends outside a night club in Colombo last Friday night and are said to have damaged two vehicles in a brawl, police said.

The incident occurred outside Cascade, adjoining Colombo Plaza hotel on Friday night. The two sons of Minister S.B. Dissanayake and a son of Minister Mahinda Wijesekara were involved in the incident in which the relatives and friends of Minister Kabeer Hasheem were injured, two of them seriously. The injured were being treated at a private hospital in Colombo.

The incident had started when the ministers' sons entered into a heated argument at the discotheque at Hotel Hilton earlier in the night. The dispute had been resolved and the other group had left the hotel and visited the night club at Cascade.

The ministers’ sons had allegedly followed them and waited at the car park of the night club. A member of other group walked up to them to sort out the dispute. But the ministers' sons, backed by another group of 15 to 20, are alleged to have assaulted them with baseball bats and bicycle chains for about 15 minutes.

Ministerial bodyguards were reported to have been present at the scene and later claimed that one of their communication instruments had gone missing. Police had been alerted by the night club and soon after the police arrived the group had disappeared from the scene. Two brothers-in-law of Minister Hasheem were among the people who had been assaulted.

The Sunday Times learns the police had been reluctant to entertain a complaint when the affected party called over at the Kollupitiya station. The two sons of Minister Dissanayake who are currently on holiday in Sri Lanka and Minister Wijesekara's sons have been named in the complaint. One of the injured persons had suffered a severe blow on the head while another had lost two teeth, an affected party claimed.

Police Chief Indra de Silva told The Sunday Times necessary action would be taken against those responsible for the incident. Minister Hasheem told The Sunday Times the police should take prompt action against those responsible for the incident.

Minister Wijesekara when contacted by The Sunday Times said he was not aware of the incident as he was in Matara. "You will have to check from my Colombo residence," he said.

Mr. Wijesekara said, "When youths go out these things happen, but whenever ministers' sons get involved, it becomes a big issue". Minister Dissanayake was not available for comment. OIC Kollupitiya Palitha Panamaldeniya said inquiries were under way. Meanwhile, President Chandrika Kumaratunga has called for a full report on the incident.

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