Advisability of relying on IGP to conduct impartial probe questioned

Monday’s violence:

Over 200 wounded in clashes, Gnana Akka’s home, shrine destroyed

By Shamindra Ferdinando

Police Spokesperson SSP Nihal Thalduwa yesterday (10) said that local police would investigate incidents where properties belonging to members of Parliament were set ablaze, and the CID would investigate the unprovoked attacks a group of SLPP supporters carried out on anti-government protesters on Monday.

Over 200 persons received injuries during clashes on Monday, while a police constable wounded in an explosion caused by a tear gas canister near Temple Trees, succumbed to his injuries after being admitted to the National Hospital.

On Monday, mobs also destroyed the Anuradhapura home and shrine of Gnana Akka, a self-proclaimed clairvoyante, popular among powerful politicians and others.

Attorney-at-Law Thalduwa said that IGP C.D. Wikremaratne directed the DIG, in charge of the CID to investigate the incidents in the Kollupitiya and Fort police areas.

Police headquarters issued a statement regarding the launch of a special CID investigation in the wake of the main Opposition Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB) demanding the arrest of former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa over the incidents. SJB General Secretary Ranjith Madduma Bandara is on record as having alleged that the former Premier instigated the attack.

Attorney General Sanjay Rajaratnam, PC, has asked the IGP to conduct a thorough inquiry into the SLPP (Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna) mob attacks on a group of peaceful protesters.

SSP Thalduwa acknowledged that substantial damages had been caused to private properties in several parts of the country. Mobs caused extensive damage to Avenra Hotel where they torched a Lamborghini and Bay Fonte and Grandeeza hotels.

Top SJB spokesperson Mujibur Rahman questioned the rationale behind the IGP issuing instructions to DIG, CID. He said that the IGP should be held responsible for allowing the incidents outside Temple Trees and the Galle Face. “We have no faith in the incumbent IGP,” the former UNP MP said, calling for a thorough inquiry into the police chief’s complicity in SLPP goon attack.

Responding to another query, Rahman alleged that the SLPP had mounted a carefully planned operation. Premier Rajapaksa and all those members of Parliament who had been present at the Temple Trees meeting should be held accountable. MP Rahman called for punitive action against all of them regardless of their standing in the society.

He said that the police and the armed forces had failed to control the situation in spite of the promulgation of emergency at midnight on 07 May. There hadn’t been a coordinated response on the part of the police and the armed forces at all, lawmaker Rahman said, adding the loss of property and damages caused could be quite significant.

The lawmaker said that the government was yet to release a full list of properties damaged in Colombo and its suburbs and the provinces.