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AG’s request for time till August 5 granted
View(s):Case against former DIG in abduction case
The case compelling the Inspector General of Police to take criminal action against the former DIG Vass Gunawardena in an abduction and torture case was taken up in the Court of Appeal on Thursday. The Attorney General asked for time till August 5, to get instructions in this case against the former DIG in connection with the abduction and alleged torturing of Malabe IT student Nipuna Ramanayake in 2009.
Senior State Counsel A. Navavi moved for time to consider the possibility. A Bench comprising Justice S. Sri Skandharajah (President) and Justice Malini Gunaratne granted time till August 5. Petitioners IT student Nipuna Ramanayake and his mother R. Gnanalatha Ramanayake stated that the former DIG had been directly involved in committing the crime and the subsequent Police inaction; both of which are punishable offences.
No steps have been taken either to charge or indict him, the petitioners complained. The petitioners have cited the Attorney General, Vass Gunawardena, IGP N.K. Illangakoon and Athurugiriya OIC S.D.K.K. Senanayaka as respondents. The petitioners stated that on August 4, 2009, Ravindu Gunawardena, son of Vass Gunawardena abducted Nipuna along with some other police officers.
Later he had been assaulted and tortured by Ravindu, his mother and several other police officers, they said. The petitioners added that at the time of the incident Vass Gunawardena was the Director of the Colombo Crime Division. They also stated, the assailant stripped Nipuna of his clothes, photographed him, and trampled on his head, beating him severely with wooden poles on his arms, shoulders and ribs. Nipuna had been hospitalised for two weeks.
The petitioners stated that respondent regardless of clear evidence against Vass Gunawardane’s involvement, he has not been named as a suspect in the abduction and torture case filed by the Kaduwela Police in the Kaduwela Magistrate’s Court. DIG Anura Senanayake had informed the Kaduwela Magistrate that there had not been enough evidence to name the respondent as a suspect in connection with the Nipuna’s case, they stated.
Although the petitioners have requested the Attorney General to take steps to charge respondent Gunawarden in February this year, no action has been so far taken, they further stated.
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