The Special Report

7th January 2001

Gangsters reign

By Chandani Kirinde

• Deadly funerals
• A bloody sight greeted her

A grenade attack on a police cell and the shooting of a lawyer in Avissawella last week has once again brought to light the alarming rise in crimes in the country amidst growing allegations of indifference on the part of the law enforcement authorities to clamp down on the perpetrators of such crime.

The two incidents came in the wake of a killing of 38 year old German Tourist and the rape of his adopted daughter at a holiday resort in Tangalle on December 27.

Police have identified army deserters as being involved in all these incidents but the lack of preventive steps to stop such crimes from taking place have angered many of those affected by such violence. Several organizations have voiced their serious concern on the growing lawlessness in the country after the recent murders.

In Avissawella gang war violence had been rampant for nearly a year, but it was pushed into the forefront last week after a prominent underworld figure Selvarajah who was being held in the Police cell was killed in a grenade attack. The following day, the same gang that had carried out the grenade attack shot at one of Selvarajah's supporters near Avissawella courts accidentally killing lawyer Nandasena Padmaperuma.

Selvarajah's supporter Chandrakumar also died of injuries the following day at the Colombo General Hospital. Selvarajah was being held at the Avissawella police station in connection with two killings and a bank robbery at Wattala.

Lawyers and lay people in general in Avissawella blame the Police for inaction in the face of gang violence that has been on the rise for the past one year. The two prominent gangs operating in the area that make most of their income from "Kasippu" sales are fighting for superiority, according to Police sources.

Although security was tightened in the Avissawella town and surrounding areas after the killings with several cordon and search operations being launched, many felt it was like shutting the stable door after the horse had bolted.

"The Police have been totally incompetent. They have not taken any steps to curb the rising levels of violence", said the Vice President of the Avissawella branch of the Bar Association Piyaratne Ranasinghe.

Several other lawyers expressed similar views and said it was unlikely any gang would target lawyers but they believe Mr.Padmaperuma was an innocent bystandee who was caught up in the firing.

However the Bar Association of Sri Lanka has requested the Inspector General of Police to appoint a special team of police officers to take steps to immediately investigate the matter and take urgent and effective measures to ensure the safety of the members of the Bar in the discharge of their professional duties.

HQI Avissawella Cecil De Silva said three people including the three wheeler driver have been arrested and Police are looking for two other people and the weapon used in the shooting incident near the court house. Two of the arrested men are army deserters and the weapon used is believed to be a T 56, several of which, Police had recovered from arrested gang members in recent weeks.

He said the attack on Selvarajah had taken place around 2.15 a.m. on January 01.

"There were five policemen on duty. Selvarajah was sharing one of the cells with another prisoner. The duty officer who was the only person who could see the cell from where he was seated had received a telephone call minutes before the attack. While he was answering the phone, a man had crept in from behind and flung the grenade inside Selvarajah's cell," Mr. De Silva said.

He said the telephone call had been a ploy to distract the policemen on duty.

Five people including the duty officer who is an Inspector of police, a sergeant and three constables have been interdicted in this connection, he said.

The second attack near the court house the following day took place when the wife and some supporters of the slain gang leader Selvarajah had come to the Magistrate's Court to get an order to have a post mortem done by the Judicial Medical Officer of Colombo as they were unsatisfied with the autopsy carried out by the DMO - Avissawella.

It was while Selvarajah's supporters were returning after the Court hearing that shots were fired from a passing three wheeler killing Mr.Padmaperuma and another person later identified as Chandrakumar.

The JMO Colombo in his report has said that Selvarajah had died in a bomb attack and there were no gun shots or assault marks on his body although his family had feared foul play.

Meanwhile, the Sihala Urumaya in a statement said that politicization of institutions that are responsible for maintaining law and order and underworld gangs being controlled by political big wigs have contributed to the present day situation.

It called on the Maha Sangha and other religious leaders as well as all civic minded people to pressurise the government to allow the Police to carry out its duties in a free and fearless manner.

The Colombo Law Society while condemning the killing of Mr.Padmaperuma said it views with serious concern the escalating tendency of lawlessness and disrespect to the rule of law in the country and requested the President to order an immediate investigation into Mr.Padmaperuma's killing.

Deadly funerals

Gang wars in the Avissawella area have escalated to such an extent that having a funeral for a dead gang member is proving to be a difficult task.

The funeral of Selvarajah who was killed in a grenade attack at the Avissawella Police station was held in Colombo because family members were warned if the funeral was held in the area their houses would be burnt down, residents said.

Recently, on the day of the a funeral of a man killed in a gang war at Manikawatte in Avissawella, two men had entered the house with an automatic weapon and fired at the body lying in the coffin.

The dead man Suresh, had been a three wheeler driver. He apparently drove the vehicle that was used to carry out an unsuccessful attack on Selvarajah about one and a half months ago. Suresh was subsequently shot dead, police said.

Frightened relatives, friends and villagers had fled the house disrupting the funeral and had not returned to carry out the last rites fearing they would be attacked too. Police had to intervene and cremate the body.

Since then the house has been abandoned .

A bloody sight greeted her

Dr. Sheela Padmaperuma was carrying out her routine duties at the Avissawella hospital last Tuesday when a labourer's scream that her husband had been shot rang out along its corridor. She ran towards the hospital's operating theater only to be confronted with the sight of her husband's bloody body being wheeled into the theater in a trolley. Her husband was conscious at the time and spoke a few words to her before being taken in for emergency surgery. It was the last time she saw him alive.

This is the tragic end that met a leading lawyer of Avissawella Nandasena Padmaperuma who became an innocent victim of the gang war going on in the area.

Mr. Padmaperuma who left for Courts that morning had decided to come home early as he was feeling unwell.

He had come towards his office to pick up a few things and was chatting to a friend when a man started firing shots towards them from a passing three wheeler.

The first bullet hit the alleged target of the assailant who was standing close to Mr.Padmaperuma.

Tragically the rest of the bullets hit Mr. Padmaperuma in his leg and stomach and he succumbed to his injuries at the Avissawella Base Hospital.

The assailants got away in a three wheeler and the gang member they targeted died subsequently at the Colombo General hospital due to gun shot injuries to his head.

"My husband was a wonderful man who did no wrong to anyone. My children and I are lost without him," his wife Sheela said.

"He left home that day after eating the rice and curry I prepared for him. Sometimes that was the only full meal he had for the whole day because once he started working, he did not pay attention to having his meals," she said.

Mr.Padmaperuma, (49) , a father of three girls aged six, ten and twelve was a popular figure among the legal fraternity in Avissawella where he had been practising for over ten years.

"The last words my husband told were "I am not going to live for long. But he was brave. He didn't have a single tear in his eyes," his wife said tearfully.

"He uttered the same words to the surgeon before he was taken into the operating theater. That was the last time I saw him alive," she said.

Mr.Padmaperuma's funeral was held amidst a large gathering in his home town of Padukka yesterday.

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