CCD DIRECTOR GETS 8 YEARS FOR KILLING SCHOOLBOY

Panadura High Court judge Mohomed Sulphika Rasheem sentenced Colombo Crimes Division (CCD) director and Superintendent of Police

(SP) Roshan de Silva and two police sergeants to eight years imprisonment yesterday over the death of a 16 year old boy in Horana in 1990.

The High Court judge found SP Roshan de Silva and police sergeants W. Deepthi Perera and M. Jayasena guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Each accused was sentenced to eight years rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs. 25,000 each, or, in default, one additional year of imprisonment. The sentence was passed on 18.6.2015.

In this case, the Attorney General had indicted Roshan de Silva, M. Jayasena and W. Deepthi Shantha Perera with causing the death of 16 year old Janith Nalaka Kumara Perera, a schoolboy, while in police custody on 15 January 1990. At the time, the first accused Roshan de Silva was OIC (Crimes) of the Ingiriya Police and the 2nd and 3rd accused attached to the Horana Police (Crimes Branch).

The case for the prosecution was that 16 year old Janith Nalaka Kumara Perera had been arrested by a special squad in December 1989 and was under interrogation by the Panadura Police regarding his possible involvement in the JVP insurrection.

The three accused police officers had taken custody of Janith Perera and taken him to Horana for questioning. They had shot him while he was in their custody. On the basis of the investigation report of the Police Headquarters Special Investigation Unit, the Attorney General had indicted the three officers with committing the murder of Janith Nalaka Kumara Perera on 15th January 1990 by shooting him while he was in their custody.

The case went for trial in the Panadura Provincial High Court. After twenty four years, the trial had been concluded and the presiding High Court judge found the accused guilty.