The Embilipitiya Chief Magistrate’s Court on Monday ordered police to expedite investigations and record witness statements in two interlinked cases arising from a cannabis raid in Suriyakanda involving National People’s Power Ratnapura District MP Shantha Pathma Kumara Subasingha and a suspended Police Constable, Susantha Hettiarachchi, Ada Derana reported.
Chief Magistrate R.M. Malan Ishara Jayasuriya directed police to record evidence in both the police case against the constable and a counter-case the constable has filed against the MP. The court further directed that suspects be arrested, if necessary, before the next hearing, and set October 26 as the deadline for police to complete recording of statements and submit a comprehensive report. The cases are listed for hearing on November 2 and December 20.
The first case is the police prosecution of the suspended constable on allegations of obstruction and criminal intimidation, which had earlier been referred to a Mediation Board but failed to produce a settlement. The second is the counter-case the constable has filed against the MP over an alleged altercation linked to the same raid.
Counsel for the suspended constable told the court that his client had been arrested within hours of being hospitalised after the incident, while no suspects had been arrested or even questioned in the case targeting the MP despite several months passing. The same counsel said the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka had directed police to reinstate the suspended constable, but that directive had not been implemented.
The cross-cases sit within a broader pattern of accountability cases now winding through provincial courts, including the Rs. 16.5 million chairs-procurement file against former Southern Province Chief Minister Shan Wijayalal.
