The Colombo High Court on Friday acquitted two of the four accused in the 2009 Narahenpita rice lorry robbery case and ordered the remaining two — Sampath Manamperi and Niranjan Perera — to present their defence.
The order was delivered by High Court Judge Rasantha Godawela when the case was called on Friday afternoon, the Daily Mirror reported at 3.05 p.m. Hiru News filed its own account ten minutes later. The two filings agree on every material point.
What the court decided
The accused had applied under Section 200(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure to be acquitted without being called upon to present a defence. The judge ruled on that application.
For the first accused, Indika Daladawatta, and the second accused, Bandula Jayasinghe, the judge held that insufficient evidence had been led to prove the charges beyond reasonable doubt. Both were acquitted.
For the third accused, Sampath Manamperi, and the fourth, Niranjan Perera, the court found there were not sufficient grounds to acquit at this stage, and called on them to present their defence.
Counsel for the third and fourth accused told the court they intend to call witnesses. The judge directed the defence to file a list of witnesses within one week.
The charges
The Attorney General indicted four accused on seven charges. The prosecution case is that on or about 12 August 2009 the accused, posing as police officers, intimidated a businessman transporting rice from the Eastern Province near the Narahenpita junction, and robbed him of the lorry, cash and a mobile phone.
Both filings state that the incident allegedly involved a group of police officers, including an individual who had served as a personal security officer to then President Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Two names that have never settled
This desk reported on 3 November that the verdict had been fixed for 13 November. That article flagged that the complainant’s name appears in several spellings across filings, and Friday’s reporting adds another: the Daily Mirror today writes Selvadurai Kolavennadan, against Sellathurai Kolavennathan in its own 3 November filing and Sellaadurai Kolavennadan in Hiru’s. The fourth accused is Niranjan Perera today and Neranjan Perera in the earlier filings, and the judge is Rasantha Godawela today against Rashantha Godawela before. No outlet gives an authoritative transliteration, and this report uses Friday’s spellings.
The 3 November article also recorded that the first two accused were unnamed in the earlier coverage. Friday’s order names them — and acquits them.
Not reported
Neither filing says what sentence the seven charges carry on conviction, how the accused pleaded, or on what date the defence case will be taken up. Neither gives the value of the lorry — the earlier filings put it at about Rs 1 million — and neither states the Attorney General’s position on the acquittals or whether an appeal is contemplated.
Manamperi remains in remand custody in a separate matter, the discovery of two containers of raw material allegedly used to manufacture “ice” narcotics in the Middeniya area. Friday’s filings do not restate that status, and the two cases should not be conflated.