CCD ORDERED TO CONCLUDE PROBE
The Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court yesterday ordered the Colombo Crimes Division (CCD) to conclude investigations into the Rajagiriya accident involving former Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka and inform court on February 14, 2020.
Filing a motion before Colombo Additional Magistrate Kanchana Neranjana de Silva, CCD OIC Neville Silva sought an order to obtain telephone records of the former minister and his driver Dilum Thusitha Kumara. He also sought an order to get relevant unedited video footage from television channels.
Accordingly, the Colombo Additional Magistrate ordered the CCD to obtain telephone records of the former minister and his driver. Furthermore, the magistrate ordered the television channels to provide unedited video clips of the incident to the CCD.
According to the B-report, the CCD had initiated investigations on twenty phone numbers used by the former minister during the time of the incident.
Appearing on behalf of the former minister and his driver, Counsel Gunaratne Wanninayake informed the magistrate that the court issued the travel ban without naming the former minister and his driver as suspects on the road accident that took place in 2016 at Rajagiriya.
He also informed the magistrate that on December 13, officials attached to the CCD travelled to Galle and forcibly brought former minister’s driver Thusitha Kumara’s family members to Colombo sans a court order.
“At the time, there were Thusitha Kumara’s mother, his wife and child. CCD Inspector Meththananda, along with a group of officials, brought his family members to Battaramulla,” he said. He informed the magistrate that these kinds of incidents happened before 2015 and were worried if this was an abduction. Responding to the counsel’s statement, CCD OIC Neville Silva informed the magistrate that the CCD received information on Thusitha Kumara’s residence in Galle and according to that fact initiated the investigation.
“We went to Galle to get a statement from him.we only used a vehicle belonging to the Ccd.after we went to his residence, Thusitha Kumara was not available. He was at a residence in Jayanthipura.the family members wanted to support the investigation and they came along with us to Colombo,” he informed court.