Asela Dharmasiri, convenor of the United War Veterans Association, has been remanded until August 25 by the Ampara Additional Magistrate over online posts directed at a Grama Niladhari in the district, Hiru News reported.
Damana Police told the court he was arrested and investigated following a complaint lodged on August 11 by the Grama Niladhari of the W25/A division in Panthalgama, Ampara.
What police told the court
According to the police account put before the magistrate, the man concerned had not lived at the permanent address recorded for him in the electoral register for more than ten years. Because of difficulties this created in her routine duties, the Grama Niladhari wrote to the Election Commissioner proposing that his name be removed from the register at its next revision.
Police said he then published posts online attacking the officer on several occasions and directed vulgar abuse at her, acting on what police characterised as a mistaken belief that he had been struck off the register as a result.
The Grama Niladhari reported the matter to the officer-in-charge of the Ampara Division Women’s Bureau, Chief Inspector Dayani Gamage, and lodged a complaint at the Damana Police Station on her instructions.
The section cited
Hiru reported that the arrest was made for an offence under Section 345 of the Penal Code. That section, introduced by the Penal Code (Amendment) Act No. 22 of 1995, defines the offence of sexual harassment, which it extends to causing “sexual annoyance or harassment” by words or actions. It carries a term of up to five years, a fine, or both, and allows a court to order compensation.
Hiru’s own headline and summary describe the case as one of defamation. Sri Lanka has had no criminal defamation offence since the Penal Code (Amendment) Act No. 12 of 2002 repealed the Penal Code’s defamation chapter, leaving defamation a matter for the civil courts alone. The section police cited is not a defamation provision, and the routing of the complaint through the Women’s Bureau is consistent with the offence that section does define. Hiru did not address the discrepancy, and the report does not set out the content of the posts.
Dharmasiri has not been convicted of any offence. He is due back before the Ampara Additional Magistrate on August 25.
At the time of writing, on Monday morning, no other verified Sri Lankan newsroom had published its own report of the case. Checks of Ada Derana, Daily Mirror, NewsFirst, Ada, Sri Lanka Mirror, ITN and The Morning found no second account.
