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Hulftsdorp Hill

22nd March 1998

High Court Judge faces police terror

By Mudliyar

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On February 7, a youth, about 20, was going to the nearest boutique to bring some provisions for his mother. It was a sleepy Saturday morning. While walking towards the boutique, he was thinking of his father's birthday that was on the previous day, for his father looked after them and loved them well.

The father had got up early in the morning and was doing some gardening. Everyone thought they were powerful and rich, but he was just an honest Government servant depending on his salary. They lived in a scheme built on a land given to public servants by the government. The boutique keeper whom the youth knew from the day they shifted to the scheme, greeted him with a smile and gave him whatever he wanted. Then a police jeep full of policemen and some men behind stopped near the boutique.

One police officer from the Jeep shouted at the boy and told him ''Oi! fetch some cigarettes for me from the boutique.'' He resented the Police. He could never forget an experience he and his family underwent when he was quite young. He quite casually told the Police ''if you want, get down and buy the cigarettes yourself," only to earn the wrath of the police officer. Somebody from inside the Jeep said 'Kuddek the koheda'' [''Must be a heroin addict''] The boy looked down. Another Police Officer got down from behind and ordered him ''Negapan, Negapan'' [get in, get in].

''What have I done?'' he asked the police officer who was standing near him. ''That we will see when we go to the Police Station,'' he said and pushed him into the jeep while a shocked boutique keeper was witnessing the drama. The boutique keeper went to the police station and told an officer that they have arrested a son of a High Court Judge in Colombo.

The senior police sergeant seems to have realized that his fellow Policemen had committed a serious offence by arresting an innocent boy. But he was unable to do anything as the Jeep with the boy had not come to the police station.

The Mudalali had no alternative but to run back to the residence of the High Court Judge and tell him what had happened. The Judge was doing his gardening when he heard the news. He rushed to the telephone but found the telephone was dead. It had been out of order for a few days. Then he got into his car with the Mudalali and went to the police station.

To his horror, the judge found a reserve sergeant was the senior most police officer in charge of the police station. The sergeant was apologetic. The judge was told he had to wait until the police jeep arrived. Finally when the Police Jeep arrived, both the sergeant and the High Court Judge found that there were some contusions on the face of the son; he had probably been assaulted in the jeep. The boy went towards his father, but still in police custody, and told him, that though he identified himself as the son of a High Court Judge, the police still continued to assault him inside the Jeep.

The sergeant told the High Court Judge that the police officers made a mistake, and he pleaded with the judge to settle the matter amicably.

The judge told him that he could only settle the matter with the person who assaulted his son and that he should own up.

Then the number of police officers in the Station suddenly increased from 10 to about 20 or 30. Finally the police officer owned up. The High Court Judge was furious and told the Police Officer that "the only thing left for a father to do was to assault the man who had assaulted his son in return but in this instance I cannot do this because of my position."

The Police Officers did not take these remarks kindly. There were whispers all round and they seemed to be very angry. Having illegally arrested the son of a High Court Judge, or for that matter anyone, and assaulted him the policemen become bitter that anyone dares to question their authority inside a police station.

The judge wanted the son to be released. The sergeant who knew that there were injuries on his face and that it was necessary to give some explanation for the illegal assault, in order to save the skin of the police officer, insisted that the son should make a statement. The judge, who had been a practitioner and started his judicial career as a magistrate, knew how the police react in these circumstances. Their favourite ploy was to make entries that the suspect resisted arrest, or ran away from custody, and that reasonable force as permitted in the Criminal Procedure Code was used by them to apprehend the suspect. And if they cannot plant any production on an innocent man, they have in stock at the police station packets of heroin, or if they want indefinite remand even a kilogram of heroin could be found.

But to plant these productions they want a statement from the accused. The tricks of the trade are known to every police officer. The training is not given at the Police Academy but at the police stations.

Lawyers and judges are not unaware of these methods. Though most Judges ignore this false testimony, they deal with the matter on the evidence procured by such self seeking policemen. It is unfortunate that the justice system of this country permits police officers to lie with impunity and very few police officers are charged with and punished for fabricating cases against the public.

The High Court Judge asked the sergeant what was the necessity for recording a statement from his son, when he had been illegally arrested and assaulted when he identified himself, and had injuries that could be seen by every one. The sergeant nonetheless insisted that the son's statement should be recorded. When the judge told him that there was no necessity to do so, the police officers who had ganged up had increased in numbers. Then a police officer reminded the sergeant in a loud voice that he should do his duty and have the impudence to say whoever it may be, even if that person is a 'nadukaraya,' why won't you put him in the cell.

Then the judge walked up to the HQI's room and wanted to take a call to the Chief Justice. Then a police officer grabbed the receiver and told him that he could not use the phone. At the same time he seized the cellular phone which was with the other son. By this time there were a large number of police officers, and one inspector who arrived at the scene went to the armoury and took a gun and cocked it, to be heard by everyone. At this time a large crowd had gathered at the Police station and they knew that the police had arrested the son of a High Court Judge, who was now being intimidated by the police.

In the meantime a famous female vocalist who had met with an accident and wanted to report the accident to the police found that nothing could be done as the police were not responding to the telephone. She with her cellular telephone contacted the ASP and informed him of the commotion. It was the advent of the ASP which defused the situation. If the ASP had not responded to the telephone call of the singer, the situation would have become explosive. What concocted version the Police could give to the public is only a matter of conjecture.

This unfortunate situation clearly shows the amount of authority and power the police wield today. Even the mention of the fact that the boy was the son of a High Court Judge could not prevent the police from using brutal third degree methods on them. Even after the High Court Judge identified himself, it did not deter the police. they carried on regardless and permitted the situation going out of control.

A main police station in the metropolis was under a senior sergeant. A young inspector who came onto the scene, instead of ordering the other police officers to behave and restrain themselves, cocked a gun as if to shoot the judge and his two sons. Another police officer wanted to throw the judge and his son behind bars. What is the position of an ordinary man who complains bitterly about torture and false implication in cases. It is no secret that major heroin dealers operate hand in glove with some police officers. Sometimes those who question the police are planted with heroin and are languishing in jail without bail.

Politicians are beholden to the police. They use the authority of the police to harass, abuse, and even eliminate their opponents. The police are expected to falsify evidence in the Information Book, and obtain evidence necessary to permit the politicians to discharge their supporters.

If the police officers act independently and refuses to take directives from their political masters they are transferred to operational areas to be killed by the LTTE. Surely and definitely we are gliding towards a police state, a Fascist state and a Pol Potist state.

To kill the enemy and his family has become a trend today. Take for instance, the Negombo incident. Knowledgeable people say it was politically motivated.

The President capped it all when she said that Ranil boycotted Parliament when a stone or two were thrown at his meeting at Eppawala. There had been a series of politically motivated actions directed at the opposition. Either no one is arrested or there is no evidence to prosecute those who have been arrested, as the police do not have directions to conduct proper investigations. The police in turn know that they have reached a position of pre-eminence in perpetrating or supporting illegal activities of the politicians. As a result, they have become quite oblivious to doing anything illegal.

We have heard of the complaints of police officers inquiring into civil disputes, and ejecting tenants from houses or permitting the local underworld gang leaders to do it for them. The tenants who have been ejected unlawfully, and people who have been thrown out by the land lord by extra-judicial methods, with the police refusing to entertain complaints, run helter skelter in search of justice. The legal process is slow and takes a long time to bear fruit. But people who have been thrown onto the road have little recourse to justice. Gradually the law of the jungle is replacing the Rule of Law.

The only solution to this state of affairs is, I believe, to make the Police Department responsible to an independent Police Commission which will not be responsible to any single political party or a politician.


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