Wounded Navy officer victimised again

A former Navy officer who served as a Surgeon Lieutenant Commander and was awarded the Ranawickrema medal for his gallantry in the battlefront was recently admitted to the National Hospital in Colombo for surgery. It was for a shrapnel injury he suffered in Oddusuddan in the Wanni in 1999.

A police officer has come to him to fill a standard form. One of the questions was about the rank he held. After the ex-naval officer doctor got himself discharged and returned to work, he found a police constable from the Maradana station turning up at his work place.

He wanted to record a statement of the former officer saying there was complaint against him, but did not disclose the allegation.

The ex-Navy surgeon- officer accompanied by a lawyer called over at the police station to find out the allegation.

He learnt that it was the Navy which made a claim that he had impersonated a government officer when he was not in the Navy.

The ex- officer charges that this is revenge. He says there was no case of impersonation. During admission to hospital he did not declare himself as a Navy officer as he no longer served there.

He has the copy of the bed head-ticket as proof. It was only when a standard form was filled that he declared the rank he held in the Navy.

The ex-navy officer has now been forced to leave his new found job. The management did not like the police turning up there periodically.