Relatives of a man who died after being arrested by Mount Lavinia Police and produced before a court have lodged a complaint with the IGP and the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka. The deceased has been identified as Wasana Susantha Dissanayake, 49 years, a resident of Schoolm Lane, Kalubowila. He is said to have run a motorcycle repair business as his livelihood.
His son also runs a motorcycle spare parts shop in Attidiya. Vasana Susantha, who died on March 18, was arrested by the police in Ratmalana while carrying food to her son on his motorbike. There the police asked him to tell you where your luggage was hidden. Since no one knew that he had been arrested, he lied that there was luggage near the house and somehow brought the officers closer to the house. The officers had assaulted him and searched the house and the residents had seen that he had been arrested.
He had told his wife Nishanthi that he had been beaten by police officers who were angry at him for cheating and taking him near the house. When his wife went to the police station to visit him on the night of March 18, she had seen Susantha in a difficult situation and had said to the police officers that she able to complained to the Human Rights Commission that the police had beaten her husband.
The police officers had further assaulted him and told him not to say anything in the court. He was produced before the Magistrate court of Mount Lavinia on March 19, and he had said that he would plead guilty under the pressure of the police officers. He was produced before the court on the charge of possessing 50 grams of cannabis. He was released after a fine of Rs 10,000 but returned home ill.
He told his wife and relatives that he was tied to a bench and had a water pipe stuck in his nose and then spilled petrol. There were also various injuries to the head as well as the back. When his condition worsened, his wife took him to the Kalubowila Hospital on 21st March and provided him with residential treatment for five days. Although he returned home in five days, Susantha was not well. He gets sick again on the morning of 31st March.
Susantha was rushed to the Kalubowila Hospital on the same day and died on the 1st of April leaving her family with an unresolved issue. His postmortem examination was carried out at the Kalubowila Hospital and it was stated that the cause of death was pneumonia. But relatives did not accept the cause of death and therefore the internal parts of the body were finally ordered to be sent to the government Analyst’s Department.