An important courtroom order was issued immediately (11) concerning the people arrested in reference to the inhumane assault on a three-wheeler driver within the Rajagiriya, Kalapaluwawa space. Six suspects, together with the son of well-known mannequin Piumi Hansamali, had been arrested by the Welikada Police in reference to this incident and produced earlier than the courtroom. After contemplating the details introduced, Colombo Extra Justice of the Peace Nuwan Kaushalya ordered that each one suspects be remanded till the sixteenth.
This order was issued primarily based on the details introduced to the courtroom by the Welikada Police, who’re investigating this assault incident that generated vital public dialogue, and the need for a suspect identification course of.
The first purpose for this battle was a street accident that occurred within the Rajagiriya space about three months in the past. In keeping with data reported by the police to the courtroom, the accident occurred when a bike pushed by a buddy of Piumi Hansamali’s son and the three-wheeler of the assaulted particular person collided. At the moment, an argument erupted between the 2 events because of this accident, and on account of it escalating, Piumi Hansamali’s son and a bunch of his mates got here and assaulted the three-wheeler driver. Though this incident occurred a number of months in the past, authorized motion solely commenced not too long ago.
Whereas the incident had been suppressed, a collection of video clips circulated on social media networks up to now few days introduced this crime again into public consideration. The movies clearly confirmed one particular person making an attempt to assault the three-wheeler driver with a shovel-like weapon. The assaulted younger man was seen operating across the three-wheeler, pleading for mercy and making an attempt to avoid wasting his life. The police knowledgeable the courtroom that because of this inhumane assault, the injured driver even needed to be admitted to the Colombo Nationwide Hospital for remedy. The sufferer, experiencing extreme discomfort and disgrace as a result of dissemination of the assault footage on social media, determined to go to the Welikada Police and file a grievance.
Upon receiving this grievance, the Welikada Police instantly launched an investigation and succeeded in figuring out the suspects concerned. It was noteworthy that the faces of the six people, together with Piumi Hansamali’s son, who had been arrested and produced earlier than the courtroom, had been utterly coated. The police requested the courtroom to remand the suspects to forestall any affect on the independence of witnesses, as an identification parade was scheduled to be held on a future date. The police additionally identified that the aim of overlaying their faces was to guard the authorized validity of this parade.
Nonetheless, the panel of attorneys representing the suspects argued earlier than the courtroom that this incident occurred a number of months in the past, and the related video footage and images have already been circulated amongst tens of millions of individuals by way of social media. The protection legal professional contended that there can be no function in presenting the suspects for an identification parade when their photographs have already been publicized, stating it will merely be a technical step. Due to this fact, he requested the courtroom to launch the suspects on bail with out subjecting them to an identification parade.
Amidst these arguments, Colombo Extra Justice of the Peace Nuwan Kaushalya, in asserting his resolution, emphasised that correct authorized process should be adopted as investigations are nonetheless ongoing. The Justice of the Peace identified that an identification parade, being an official judicial course of, can’t be bypassed merely as a result of footage has appeared on social media, and he rejected the protection’s bail utility. Accordingly, all six suspects had been ordered to be remanded till the sixteenth, and an identification parade was ordered to be held on that day below the complete supervision of jail officers.
Moreover, one other vital reality revealed in courtroom concerning this incident is the choice to put Piumi Hansamali’s son and one different suspect, who’re amongst these remanded, below probation. Courtroom sources state that this step was taken after contemplating their age and related authorized provisions. Notably, Piumi Hansamali’s son had beforehand been arrested and produced in courtroom in reference to one other incident of assaulting a younger man inside a storage within the Rajagiriya space. In that earlier case, he was launched on a private bail of 5 hundred thousand rupees. Investigating officers are paying shut consideration to the truth that the identical particular person has been concerned in two related acts of violence inside a brief interval.
This assault occurred within the Ambagahandiya space, which falls below the Welikada Police Division, and the police had launched a particular operation to arrest the suspects. Though months had handed for the reason that incident, there was no hindrance to the enforcement of the regulation, and the police’s search operations performed final evening (09) to find the absconding suspects had been profitable. After arresting one suspect, the opposite suspects had been additionally dropped at justice.
Though the assaulted particular person has bodily recovered, his goal is to acquire justice for the disagreeable expertise he confronted and the embarrassment he suffered in entrance of society. The police have recognized taking the regulation into one’s personal arms over a standard incident like a street accident and finishing up a probably deadly assault as a critical crime. The long run course of the case shall be determined after the identification parade scheduled for the sixteenth, and this incident has despatched a robust message to society concerning the rule of regulation within the nation.

