The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka has summoned the Officer-in-Charge of the Homagama Police Station and two other officers to appear before it on Thursday, over the death of a 29-year-old man in a cell at that station. The commission is also recording statements from the dead man’s relatives.

The Daily Mirror reported the summons at 12.43 p.m. Colombo time on Wednesday, and Hiru News reported it at 2.15 p.m. Both attribute it to HRCSL Commissioner, Attorney-at-Law Nimal G. Punchihewa, who said the officers had been directed to appear as part of the commission’s ongoing investigation into the incident.

The officers are to appear tomorrow (29 October).

A third body now has the case

This is the significant development. Until Wednesday, the Homagama death was being examined on two tracks: a police investigation and a magistrate’s inquiry. It now has a third, and an independent one.

The HRCSL is a constitutional body with its own power to summon and to inquire into alleged violations of fundamental rights. Its entry means the officers concerned face questioning by an institution outside the police chain of command, running in parallel with — and not dependent on — the force’s own internal process.

Hiru adds that the Western Province South Crimes Division has separately recorded statements from several Homagama police station officers as part of its investigation.

Which officers, and a distinction worth noting

Both filings describe the summons the same way: three officers, including the Officer-in-Charge of the Homagama Police Station.

That is not obviously the same group as the three officers already suspended. This desk’s earlier reporting recorded that three officers were suspended, including the officer-in-charge of the Homagama Police Criminal Investigation Division — a different post from the station OIC, who commands the station itself.

Neither filing says whether the three summoned officers are the three who were suspended. Both groups number three, and both are described as including an officer-in-charge, but the posts named are not the same one. The overlap, if any, is not established in either report and is not assumed here.

The commission is also hearing from the family

The HRCSL has taken steps to record statements from several family members of the deceased, both outlets report, as part of the same investigation.

That matters because the family’s account is one of the two competing versions of what happened. Relatives say the body bore injuries indicating a severe assault; the police account has been that the man fell suddenly ill in the cell. The post-mortem could not separate them.

Why the medical evidence cannot settle it

The examination was carried out on 27 October at Kalubowila Teaching Hospital and returned no cause of death. Parts of the body went to the Government Analyst and steps were taken to return an open verdict, as this desk reported on Wednesday morning.

With the autopsy inconclusive, neither the relatives’ allegation nor the police account is supported or refuted by the medical evidence. That is precisely the gap the Bar Association of Sri Lanka pointed to on Tuesday when it wrote to the Inspector General of Police demanding an immediate, impartial and comprehensive investigation, and asked that “contradictory statements” be transparently investigated — a demand sharpened by the open verdict rather than answered by it.

The case so far

The dead man, named in earlier reporting as Francis Durage Ishara Harsha Kumara of Kirivattuduwa, was arrested in a drug raid in the early hours of Sunday 25 October and died after being taken to Homagama Base Hospital. His body was released to his family on Tuesday night.

Three officers have been suspended, and the Public Security Minister has instructed the IGP to conduct a prompt and independent investigation. The Police Media Spokesman, ASP F.U. Wootler, has rejected the “sudden illness” account the BASL attributed to him personally — a denial about attribution, not a change in the police position.

Not reported

Neither filing names the three summoned officers, says whether they remain on duty or are among those suspended, or states what the commission intends to ask them. Neither says whether the HRCSL opened the inquiry on its own motion or on a complaint, and if on a complaint, from whom.

Neither gives the commission’s powers or timetable in this matter, whether its proceedings on Thursday will be public, or when it expects to report. Neither says whether the IGP has yet responded to the Bar Association’s letter, and no timeframe is given for the Government Analyst’s results.

Corroborated — two verified newsrooms. The Daily Mirror and Hiru News agree on the summons, the number of officers, the post of the senior officer named, the commissioner’s name, the appearance date and the family statements. Hiru alone carries the Western Province South Crimes Division detail. Ada Derana has returned an HTTP 403 block to this desk for 48 consecutive days; NewsFirst had not filed at the time of writing.