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Police Commission to probe CJ incident
The National Police Commission will look into an allegation that two police officers made an attempt to persuade another police officer to make a statement to the effect that the male who was found in the company of a female inside a car near Parliament did not resemble the Chief Justice.

The allegation was made by Desmond Fernando, PC who represented Chief Inspector C.V. Weerasena who has been called for an inquiry into the complaint made by Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva that he has been falsely implicated in an incident where a male and female were detected in a compromising position inside a car recently.

NPC Chairman Ranjith Abeysuriya said he had received a complaint from Mr. Fernando and will be looking into it. Mr. Fernando complained that when he represented CI Weerasena at the inquiry at the Police Special Investigations Unit, SSP E.L.L. Amarasekara and SP Roshan Fernando had showed the inspector the front page of a newspaper which carried the Chief Justice's photograph and was told that the police constables involved in the incident had stated that this photograph was not that of the person whom they had detected on July 6 near the Diyawanna Oya.

They had told the officer that the male in the car had been described by the constables as a person who was very dark in complexion, had a pot belly and a large mustache. The complaint stated Mr. Weerasena was told that if he could also say the same thing they would not put Mr. Weerasena in trouble and that they would close the file.

Mr. Fernando said he had told CI Weerasena not to take any notice of these remarks but to tell the truth. Mr. Fernando has called the Police Commission to direct investigations and not to allow police officers to carry out the inquiry on the direction of the IGP.

Meanwhile Police are continuing investigations into the complaint. They have so far recorded the statements of the police officers who were involved. The Sunday Times learns that there have been disparities between the statements made by the four policemen of the Talangama Police who initially checked the vehicle and that of Chief Inspector Weerasena. One of the disparities has been the vehicle number.

Meanwhile, the Joint Opposition may decide to call for the appointment of a Parliamentary Select Committee to probe the incident if it finds that the investigations were not being conducted impartially.

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