Responding to recent claims of the Criminal Investigation Department of Police (CID) at court that the Attorney General has failed to issue instructions on the case of murdering three people who protested demanding clean drinking water in Rathupaswala area in August 2013, a senior official of the AG department speaking to the Sunday Observer denied of so called delay within the process.
The matter went down again late last week as Attorney General’s (AG) advice had not been obtained yet and will be taken up again in January next year.
“If the CID says their investigations are over, we can think of starting our own inquiry to decide whether we are filing a criminal case or not. Even if the CID says that they have completed the investigation, we need to check if there is any need of doing further investigations through a study by our own” the officer who wish remain anonymous said.
The CID officers informed the Gampaha Magistrate, D.A. Ruwan Pathirana last week, that they have not received an instruction from the AG department upon submitting relevant files to the department. “We have to conduct a very comprehensive study. Once the study is over, then we can decide whether we are filing action or not” the AG department officer pointed out.
Three army personnel were arrested last year over the charge of killings at Rathupaswala and they were released on bail later. Justice to Rathupaswala victims were one of the key promises of the then Opposition at the last Presidential Election. The present government granted compensation on behalf of the victims who got either killed or injured at the unfortunate incident.
Soon after the incident Brigadier Gunawardena who led the army contingent to handle the incident was given a diplomatic appointment to Turkey in a bid to suppress investigations following local and international uproar.
When the Brigadier returned to the island in 2017, he was arrested by the CID, detained in remand custody, and later released on bail.