The spectre of custodial deaths has long haunted the law enforcement system of Sri Lanka. It is a symptom of a systematic sub-culture of impunity and lack of accountability, which has been long entrenched in the Sri Lanka Police. Custodial deaths and forced confessions and the Sri Lanka Police have a long-standing relationship. The practice of ‘beating’ out a confession is nothing new to most law enforcement forces which were modelled under colonial policing objectives. In many former colonial states, such practices have long been prohibited and waned out with new policies and a change in the culture. Sri Lanka, it seems, has missed the bus on that change.

Yesterday, following public outcry about yet another custodial death, the Police Department stated that the Acting Inspector General of Police Senior DIG Priyantha Weerasooriya has submitted a recommendation to the Ministry of Public Security to be presented to the National Police Commission (NPC), seeking to remove the Officer-In-Charge of the Welikada Police station, following a custodial death of suspect arrested in Nugegoda. Issuing a statement last evening, the Police said that the Act. IGP has also directed the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) to take over the investigations and has also suspended two personnel serving at the Nugegoda Police station, a sergeant and a Constable, for dereliction of duty. While the prompt action by the Police to investigate the incident and discipline suspected officers responsible for the issue should be commended as a departure from the past, where cover-ups and denial were the norm, the incident highlights the need for a national policy on the matter and possible restructuring of the Police training structure. It also highlights the need for an internal mechanism within the Police to check compliance and screen for bad behaviour while pointing to a need for perhaps an ombudsman’s office to look into crime and police conduct.

The problem is widespread and occasionally surfaces only when a death occurs, indicating that there are many occasions where police brutality and abuse or torture of those in custody goes unreported. The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) has reported that 24 individuals died under police custody in 2023. Also in 2023, the then Inspector General of Police (IGP) C.D. Wickramaratne interdicted four policemen from service, including an officer, over the custodial death of 42-year-old Raj Kumari at the Welikada Police station. In February this year, four Police Constables attached to the Wadduwa Police station were arrested for allegedly assaulting a person who had been apprehended, released on police bail, and later died after vomiting blood at home. The four suspects will be produced before the Panadura Magistrate’s Court and remanded. The family of the victim has alleged that the four officers were responsible for the death. The death triggered a wave of public protest in front of several police stations in the vicinity where the victim was arrested and caused several tense situations.  The deceased is a 24-year-old father of one and a resident of Thalpitiya  in Wadduwa.

Issuing a statement about last week’s incident at Nugegoda Police station, the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) expressed concerns about the incident as well as the circumstances surrounding the incident. It read: “Time and again over decades, the BASL has cautioned that it is imperative that law enforcement agencies, including Sri Lanka Police, exercise great caution and act with utmost care and responsibility to prevent such incidents, as these incidents erode trust and confidence in the system of administration of justice. The BASL regrets to note that notwithstanding the same, custodial deaths continue and the BASL is concerned that the authorities are slow in taking meaningful action to prevent the same occurring as well as taking expeditious steps and measures to bring the culprits to justice.” The repetition of such incidents, the BASL added, will lead to the allegation of a climate of impunity on the part of the State, which is most detrimental to all citizens of the country.

The time for reforms of the law enforcement apparatus of Sri Lanka is long overdue. As Sri Lanka is undergoing a period of reform and transformation both economically and socio-politically, the Government should move quickly to act on such issues and put in place policies and regulations to prevent custodial deaths and have the political will to enforce it rigorously.