PROBE ON SIRIKOTHA ATTACK
No culprits, only recommendations for questioning
Western Provincial Council United National Party (UNP) Member Srinath Perera who headed the committee that looked into the attack on the party’s headquarters ‘Sirikotha’ during the election of new office bearers, said yesterday the committee had followed principles of natural justice and had not found anyone guilty of any offence.
Mr. Perera told the Daily Mirror that the committee had only held an initial inquiry into the matter to find out who should be subjected to a further inquiry to determine whether they were guilty or not.
He explained that the committee had only identified certain people who should be questioned as the visuals they had looked into
The committee has only held an initial inquiry into the matter to find out who should be subjected to a further inquiry to determine whether they are guilty or not
and the evidence gathered suggested that certain people had a hand in the incident. Therefore, he said they had recommended that Maithri Gunaratne, Lal Perera and Shiral Laktilaka should be further questioned to determine whether they were actually guilty. “However they are presumed innocent till they are found guilty,” he said.
Mr. Perera said the committee also looked into the information provided by Mr. Laktilaka, Mr. Gunaratne and Lal Perera.
Referring to allegations made by some Unpers that the committee had not mentioned anything about the armed persons who were inside the Sirikotha premises at the time of the incident in its report, he said they had mentioned that these persons had removed the iron bars for self protection when another group stormed into the premises. This, he said was clearly seen in the visuals shown on a private TV channel.