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Journo alleging torture arrested for false complaint

19 Mar 2021

  • Rajitha and son to be questioned over links

  • Attorney claims CCD coerced to change statement

  • Police investigating UNHRC-related timing of allegation

  The Colombo Crime Division (CCD) is due to question former Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne and his son, former MP Chathura Senaratne, over being implicated in an alleged false complaint made by a journalist claiming that he was abducted and tortured. Speaking to The Morning, Police Media Spokesman Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Ajith Rohana said that the Siyarata web journalist, Sujeewa Gamage, has been arrested for making a false complaint. He has since been enlarged on bail. “The CCD launched an investigation into the incident and it was uncovered that the journalist in question had made a false complaint.” He said that the suspect had confessed to the Police that there was no truth behind his allegations of abduction and torture. Speaking to The Morning on 16 March, Gamage said that he was conducting investigations on jihad and that this may have convinced the abductors to abduct and question him on 10 March. According to Gamage, he was tortured by the abductors, adding that they had also kept a heated knife on his hand. After torturing him for information on his sources and political contacts, he was dropped close to the Dematagoda Railway Station, said Gamage, and it was further revealed by him that he had visited Chathura Senaratne's office in Thimbirigasyaya and had left the office after over three hours, and subsequently got himself admitted to the National Hospital, Colombo. Gamage also said that he had met Dr. Rajitha Senaratne before getting admitted to the hospital. However, according to police investigations, it was revealed that the suspect had utilised a spoon used by masons to cause the burn injuries on himself. “According to closed circuit television (CCTV) camera footage, he was not dropped at a street corner in Maligawatta as had been claimed by him. The suspect in fact came out of the Dematagoda Railway Station,” said Rohana. “He is residing at Udawalawatte, Dambadeniya. On 9 March, he  burnt himself utilising a spoon used by masons when his wife was not at home. We will also carry out this investigation further in order to clarify this attempt of his which comes at a time when the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is debating about Sri Lanka.” Following the abduction claim, former Speaker of Parliament Karu Jayasuriya and incumbent MP Dr. Harsha de Silva also criticised the Government through Twitter. Meanwhile, Attorney-at-Law Namal Rajapaksha, who appeared on behalf of his client Gamage, said that Gamage was detained by the CCD just after being discharged from the National Hospital of Sri Lanka without consideration for his client’s frame of mind or injuries. “My client stayed for six days at the hospital, as he was suffering from injuries. Once he was discharged, the CCD came and took him. This is so unfair.” Rajapaksha also blamed the CCD for allegedly changing his client’s statement by force. “My client’s wife informed me that Gamage changed his statement because the CCD forced him to do so.” The journalist started his career in the 1980s and has worked in the Janadina, Janasathiya, Yukthiya, and Aththa newspapers.  


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