A complaint has lodged with the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) alleging that a man in the Kotawila area in Matara had been tortured and assaulted by the Kotawila Police and had injured his right shoulder.
The victim was identified as H.G. Dharmabandu, a resident of Sultanagoda-Warakapitiya. According to him, on the night of July 31, Sumith and his son whose reside the house next door had come to the Dharmabandu’s house and got into an argument. Sumith has lodged a complaint with the Kotawila Police against Dharmabandu for allegedly throwing stones at Sumith’s son Kumudu Priyashantha.
Accordingly on 1st August at around 1.00 P.M, an officer of the Kotawila Police had come to the house and informed that come to the police station on the 3rd at 10.00 am to investigate the complaint., Dharmabandu had gone to the police on that day and only the complainant had been taken into the complaint room by the police.
Later, the police officer had pushed Dharmabandu into the police cell without asking him anything. The Kotawila OIC had come at around 1.00 pm and asked to bring Dharmabanduwa to his room. Accordingly, when he was taken there, the OIC had questioned him asking that “you assaulted an innocent campus boy with stone, didn’t you?
At that moment Kumudu Priyashantha was also taken in to the room and has started to interrogate him. Dharmabandu has stated in his complaint that, then he was assaulted on his body, back and shoulder continuously with a cricket stump by OIC who said obscene words while hitting. Meanwhile, Dharmabandu’s wife had come to the door of the OIC’s glass room and told him not to assault her husband. Accordingly, the OIC had stopped the assaulting and asked his wife that “can’t you behaved your husband?”
The victim, Dharmabandu, said that the OIC’s brutal assault had caused severe pain, numbness in his right arm and fainting. He was released on police bail at around 3.00 p.m and was admitted to the Matara General Hospital on the next day.
It was revealed that a bone in his right shoulder had been severely damaged due to the assault. Dharmabandu has lodged a complaint with the Matara Assistant Superintendent of Police and the Human Rights Commission against the Kotawila Police.
Shani
