SRI LANKA: Brutal torture and custodial death of a father of three by the Eheliyagoda police 

Dear friends,

Accordingly to V. Pushpaleela, the wife of the deceased, on August 13, 2006, Sinnappan Abraham Kiragory together with several of his friends was arrested by the Eheliyagoda police on suspicion of committing a murder. They were travelling in 2 three wheelers when they were apprehended by about 10 policemen who came in a jeep and a white coloured van and arrested them.  She also says that from the time of arrest, the policemen who were carrying whips, lashed out at the men, tied their hands behind their back with wire and forced them into the police jeep. A policeman accompanied her and her 2 children, a girl aged 11 and boy aged 7, in a three wheeler to police station.

DETAILS OF THE CASE:

Name of deceased: Sinnappan Abraham Kiragory, 41 years; married with 3 children aged 12, 11 and 7. Wife: V Pushpaleela. Address: Hemingford Estate, Parakaduwa (Now at Weheragoda, Wellampitiya); Occupation of deceased: trader in clothes (pavement hawker) in Colombo at the time of his death.
Name of perpetrators: the OIC and 10 policemen attached to the Eheliyagoda police station including policemen Perera, Abeygunawardena and Nishanka.
Date of incident: 13 to 15 August 2006 and continuing.

Ms. Pushpaleela says it was about 9.30 a.m. when they reached the police station. The 8 men including her husband were taken with their hands tied behind their back and locked up in a cell.

The police forced her and the children to sit on a bench. She was then ordered to remove all her jewellery and hand over the items; even the ear studs of her 11-year-old daughter were not spared. The police had said this was for purposes of ‘safekeeping’. The jewellery amounted to about Rs. 70,000. The police had also confiscated the husband’s Nokia mobile phone, his diary, ID card and other documents. To date none of the items have been returned.

Then the police began to interrogate the prisoners. Each suspect was dragged out of the cell and the ten policemen pounced on him with batons, poles and clubs. They pummelled them all over their bodies heedless of their screams of agony. Her husband was so severely assaulted that she suspects his legs were broken and he slumped to the ground. One of his attackers had then jumped on his body and continued to assault him on the stomach. The suspects were then handcuffed and put into the cell again. This ‘treatment’ she says was continued on a rotation basis for the rest of the day.  That is, each suspect was pulled out, beaten and thrown back into the cell over and over again.

At nightfall the policemen brought a bottle of liquor and glasses. They consumed the liquor and then resumed the torture of the suspects. Despite the men complaining of their arms and legs being fractured and that they were in severe pain, no medical treatment was offered to the suspects.

However, the most shocking feature of this cruelty was that two terrified, under aged children were forced to watch their father being so brutalised.  As a result Ms. Pushpaleela says the children are currently suffering from severe mental trauma and the 7-year-old shudders when he sees a policeman and the young one has vowed to take revenge from those who killed his father.

The entire family was detained at the police station the entire day. The following day, the 14th about 10.30 a.m. Ms. Pushpaleela and her two children were released. But when she requested her jewellery from Sub Inspector Abeygunawardena he refused to return it and told her to come back another day.

The police told them not to go back to the village so she went to Colombo. Ms. Pushpaleela says she would have been further incarcerated but luckily her brother in law had retained a lawyer who phoned the police and urged them to release them. Later her husband’s friends told her that at about 6.30 p.m., and after the courts had closed for the day, the suspects were taken to a residence, which they thought belonged to the judge (most likely an acting magistrate). They were kept in the vehicle while the police obtained an order to remand them. But then, instead of taking them to the remand prison, the policemen once again took them to a building adjoining the police station, which they suspected to be the quarters of the OIC, blindfolded them and assaulted them again.

They were then taken to the Kuruvita remand prison about 10.30 p.m. At the time the husband’s condition was serious so he had been taken to the Ratnapura Hospital by a prison vehicle and 4 prison guards stayed with him in the hospital. By the morning of the 15th he was dead. The others had been taken to hospital the next day but treated and brought back, because it was said there was a threat to their lives.

Meanwhile Ms. Pushpaleela was afraid to return to her residence, so she had taken the children to Colombo to a relative’s home. On August 17, 2006 she made a complaint to police headquarters in Colombo. On the 18th she returned and took possession of her husband’s body. She also says that on the 19th three officers claiming to be from the CID visited her in Colombo wanting to record her statement. She was taken to the Grand pass police station where she made a statement but when she asked for their contact number, they would not give it o her.  However, Ms. Pushpaleela said that they had come in a vehicle belonging to the Eheliyagoda police and had a copy of her complaint made to the police HQ on 17th.  She also complained to the Human Rights Commission on the 20th.

The policemen responsible for this brutal torture and murder are still continuing at their jobs at the same station. They are also spreading a rumour in the Estate that as she is the only witness to the incident, she must be killed. Thus she believes her live is in grave danger.

This is a tragic case of police brutality that resulted in the needless death of an innocent man and has also left three school-going children fatherless and destitute. We therefore urge the relevant authorities namely, the Inspector General of Police, the National Police Commission, Human Rights Commission and the Attorney General’s Department to:

Immediately begin investigations into the death of Sinnappan Abraham Kiragory by policemen of the Eheliyagoda police;
Hold a disciplinary inquiry and take immediate action against the offending policemen.
Institute proceedings against them in a court of law;
Take action against the acting Magistrate for remanding severely injured suspects without even seeing them solely on the version of the police.
Afford compensation to the wife and three children of the deceased to enable them to continue their education and for the irreparable loss caused to them by the law enforcement agency of the country.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write to the relevant authorities urging them immediately investigate this heinous crime and take action disciplinary and legal action against the officers concerned, provide treatment to the traumatised children and compensation to the family for the loss of a father and husband and to further provide protection to the family.

To support this appeal please click here:  http://www.ahrchk.nethttp://www.ahrchk.net/ua/support.php?ua=UA-299-2006

 

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