The Inspector General of Police has suspended the Headquarters Inspector of Homagama Police Station over the death of a suspect in a cell at the station, taking the number of officers interdicted in the case to four.
Daily Mirror names the suspended officer as M.R.S. Prajan Senanayake and reports that the suspension took effect on 28 October for alleged dereliction of duty and failure to properly supervise the detainee.
Hiru News adds that the IGP acted on a direction from the Minister of Public Security to conduct an independent investigation into the death.
The failures alleged
Daily Mirror reports that investigators found several lapses in the Headquarters Inspector’s duties:
- failing to properly monitor the suspect while he was held in a cell
- failing to issue appropriate instructions to the investigating officers
- failing to check on the suspect’s condition
- failing to verify the accuracy of arrest records
The suspension was also linked to allegations that two people had been illegally detained at Homagama Police Station — a separate matter from the death itself.
The case
P.D. Ishara Harsha Kumara was arrested on 25 October by Homagama Police officers for allegedly possessing 490 milligrams of ICE, or crystal methamphetamine. He died while in police custody.
Four officers now suspended
Three officers were already suspended with effect from 26 October. Hiru identifies them as the Officer-in-Charge of the Homagama Crimes Division, a Sub-Inspector serving as officer-in-charge of an anti-corruption raids unit, and a Police Sergeant. Daily Mirror describes the same group as three officers including the Crimes Division OIC.
The suspended Crimes Division OIC was arrested on the evening of 28 October and was due to be produced in court today.
A widening case
The death has drawn responses from several directions in four days. The Human Rights Commission summoned three Homagama officers; a magistrate ordered an arrest over the death; and a post-mortem recorded earlier in this archive returned an undetermined cause.
Separately, the Kesbewa District Court yesterday restrained the dead man’s widow and four others from staging obstructive protest along the funeral route. That order was sought by Kahathuduwa Police, which covers the route — not by Homagama, the station where he died. The funeral was held yesterday.
Not reported
Neither filing says who is now acting as Headquarters Inspector, what the two allegedly illegal detentions involved, or whether the suspensions are linked to the magistrate’s arrest order or run separately through police disciplinary channels. Neither gives the outcome of the Crimes Division OIC’s court appearance. The cause of death remains undetermined, and no filing says when further forensic results are expected.