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Grenade suspect doctor’s son slams ‘warrantless’ arrest

20 Jan 2022

 
  • Social activist son claims weapons cache in fact toys cache
  • Lodges complaint with HRCSL
  • Man who allegedly provided grenade to doc arrested
  BY Buddhika Samaraweera The son of the retired doctor who was arrested in connection with the discovery of a hand grenade at the All Saints’ Church in Borella on 11 January, Oshala Herath, has alleged that the arrest of his father was baseless and was carried out at the behest of the Police. Addressing a media briefing on Wednesday (19), he said that the Police had made a number of contradictory statements about the suspect’s (his father) involvement in the said incident and that his family had now been victimised. He also claimed that the firearms and weapons found by the Police in his house were not illegal and were of such a nature that they could be kept in anyone’s possession. “I am Oshala Herath and I am a social activist. My family has also been victimised by the Police in connection with the incident where a hand grenade was found at a church in Borella. On 17 January, a large group of police officers came to my house. The residents of my house are my father, wife, my 11-year-old son, sister, and two maids. They came into the house and told me and my father to sit in a chair in the living room and told the others to go to the rooms,” he said. He added that the Police had later searched his home and seized a toy gun belonging to his son and four air rifles he had used in his youth. “My son had a toy gun and there were four air rifles that I used when I was a youth, two swords, and a knife in the house. The Police took them all into their custody.”  According to Herath, the Police had then told him that the suspect who placed the hand grenade at the All Saints’ Church had claimed that he had done so on the instructions of Herath’s father. Herath further said that he had, at that point, told the Police that there was no need for any of his family members to do such a thing. “The Police said that the person who is said to have placed the hand grenade in the church claimed that it was given by my father. I said that we are Catholics, and that we have no such need. My father and mother were married in the All Saints’ Church. I was married as a Catholic. My child is also a Catholic,” he said. Herath further added: “My mother died six months ago from the Covid-19 infection. The Police said that my father had been suffering from some form of mental illness since my mother died. The Police also claimed that is why my father had instructed someone to place the hand grenade inside the church, because of his anger with the society. I then asked my father what the Police were saying. Then he said with a hand gesture: ‘I don’t know’.”  He added that the Police then arrested his father and did not provide an arrest note or any other document. He further stated that the Police did not provide any note or list of items seized from the house either. “After that, our lawyers and I went and told the Police that we want to talk to my father. Then the Police said that they would allow us to talk to him in a while. When the lawyers said that I as the arrestee’s son was also there, the Police said: ‘He cannot be allowed to meet his father, because there are some issues about him too’. However, we stayed there for a long time but never got a chance to meet my father, so we went to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL).”  Claiming that the media had reported that an arms cache had been found in his house, he said that it was not an arms cache, but a toy arms cache. “It is like a toy pistol cache, but now they are trying to make up a story like that of a terrorist leader being arrested. If they were real firearms, the Police should have arrested me because those items were in my room,” he claimed. Further alleging that the Police had, from time to time, made several contradictory statements regarding the incident where a hand grenade was found in the said church, Herath charged that the Police had now victimised his family as well. “At first, they said that the church’s sacristan had placed the hand grenade. Then they said that a 13-year-old boy had given a statement before the Magistrate that he had placed it. These are all contradictory stories. Now the Police have come for my father. He is a good victim for them, because we are a Catholic family. They are trying to make up a story that a Catholic doctor planted a bomb in a Catholic church. They say that our father is mentally ill because there is no other reason for them to find,” explained Herath. He also said that although the Police had stated that a suspect who had been arrested earlier in connection with the incident at the church had worked as a security guard at his (Herath’s) house, no security guard had been employed at his house. “I have been living in this house since 1996. There have never been security guards in our house,” he said. Police Media Spokesman Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) and Attorney-at-Law Nihal Thalduwa was not available for comment. Meanwhile, the Police reportedly arrested yesterday (20) the person who allegedly provided the hand grenade to the retired doctor from Piliyandala at Ranna in Hambantota, according to Ada Derana Investigations have reportedly uncovered that the same suspect had previously provided the retired doctor the hand grenade which had been placed at a private hospital in Narahenpita.  The Crime Investigation Unit of the Colombo South Police Division had arrested Herath’s father, a retired doctor, in connection with the incident where a hand grenade was discovered at the All Saints’ Church in Borella on 11 January. Police sources told The Morning that the suspect was residing in the Piliyandala area. The suspect had been arrested on the night of 18 January in the Piliyandala area on the basis of information obtained during the interrogation of a suspect arrested in the Panamure area in Embilipitiya over the same incident. The Police stated that they had also found four pistols, a revolver, an unidentified firearm, two swords, and a knife from where the suspect retired doctor lived. A hand grenade was found in the premises of the All Saints’ Church on Ananda Rajakaruna Mawatha opposite the Welikada Prison in Borella at around 4.40 p.m. on 11 January. The hand grenade was discovered following a tip-off received by the Police and it was later defused by the Police Special Task Force (STF). Following the discovery of the hand grenade in the church, four suspects in total were taken into custody over the incident earlier. The number of suspects arrested over the incident is now five, including the arrest of the suspect doctor on 18 January.

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