Harassing Family Members of the Intelligence Unit

His Excellency, Maithripala Sirisena,President of Sri Lanka

Copy to: Hon. Ranil Wickremasinghe, Prime Minister

Hon. Wijayadasa Rajapaksa, Minister of Justice

Hon. Gayantha Karunahilaka, Minister of Information

Inspector General of Police, Sri Lanka

Your Excellency,

Fervent Appeal Made by Sandya Kumari, Wife of Former Military Intelligence Officer Held in Remand for Over 14 Months

It is indeed shocking to hear the callous, nasty and inhumane treatment extended to Mrs. Sandya Kumari, wife of former military intelligence officer who has been arrested on alleged charges of killing one Prageeth Eknaligoda and held in remand for the past 14 or more months without commencement of any court inquiry to determine the truth if any of these charges.

The CID officers have entered the house of Mrs. Sandya Kumari in the early hours of the morning when she was still wearing her night clothes without any court order, and pressured her to take her young son about ten years old, and proceed with them in search of her husband who had left the Army and was at the time employed in the private sector in the Trincomalee area. There was no female officer accompanying this party of CID officers who had pushed their way into Mrs. Kumari’s house, and compel her to leave the house and travel to a distant place accompanied by these CID men. Her complaints against this mistreatment was passed around from one government institute to another, finally ending up with the Police Commission office in Anuradhapura after a lapse of over 14 months with an official inquiry pending even up to now. I trust this inquiry will be conducted without delay and Mrs. Sandya Kumari and her young son duly compensated for the brash conduct of the CID officers and harassment suffered by her at their hands.

In Mrs. Sandya Kumari’s statement she says that her husband has since been moved to the CID office in Colombo where she was also invited to come and visit her remanded husband to persuade him to sign a pre-written letter of confession stating that the alleged abduction and extrajudicial killing of this missing person named Prageeth Eknaligoda (whose body nor his existence in or outside the island is not known) was carried out on the instructions of the former Secretary of Defence, Mr. Gotabhaya Rajapakse, so that he may be released in the capacity of a crown witness who could then be coached  to spin a story incriminating the latter.  Mrs. Kumari’s husband is unwilling to sign any such letter claiming that he is totally innocent of the alleged charges and that he does not wish to free himself from custody by falsely blaming anyone else.

Are there no Police Guidelines which the CID or other Police officer should follow in the conduct of investigations? Are these charges being manufactured through political motivation on the part of the so called “Yahapalana” administration in order to discredit and harm political opponents? Unless the Yahapalana learn to act in the ‘YASA’ way, only chaos could follow with political tit for tat and a complete breakdown of law and order.

Your Excellency, I appeal to you to impress on your cabinet of ministers and high officials to set things right so that justice will prevail in the land and the people will be able to live in hope and have some faith in the leadership of their country.

Yours sincerely,

Mahinda Gunasekera