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Evicted Kollupitiya family writes to President

15 Nov 2021

  • Seeks relief under ‘One Country, One Law’ 
BY Pamodi Waravita  The family that faced an attempted eviction in Kollupitiya last week has written to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa yesterday (15), requesting that justice be served to them under the President’s concept of “One Country, One Law” and has alleged that they received threats from police officers attached to the Kollupitiya Police Station, an individual named M.S.M. Sheik, former Hambantota Mayor Eraj Fernando, and an underworld figure going by the alias “Raththaran Thilak”. “I have lived here in this land in Kollupitiya for the past 80 years, for which I have all the necessary documents that prove my residential right. A person named Sheik has been using his money and wealth to send thugs to threaten and vandalise my property, as he wants to forcibly evict me from here and obtain this land. Although I have made several complaints to the Kollupitiya Police regarding this, no investigation has been carried out. Furthermore, officers at the said police station, a thug going by the alias “Raththaran Thilak”, and Fernando have been used to threaten me,” alleged the letter, sent by the owner of the said land, Thuwan Saleem. Saleem and his children took part in a protest in front of the Presidential Secretariat yesterday, following which they were invited to the Secretariat to hand over the letter. According to Saleem, who spoke to The Morning last week, at around 2 a.m. on 11 November, a gang of thugs had come with about 40 weapons, including pistols, and had kicked them out of the container they had been living in. “They were shouting the name of Fernando and threatened us, asking us who we think we are in the face of a man like Fernando. We also suspect that there were about 50 people from the armed forces in that group due to the way they were talking and the weapons they carried. After they carried the container away, they brought another container here and put three private security guards to guard it.” Police Media Spokesman Senior Superintendent of Police Nihal Thalduwa said that the three aforementioned private security guards were arrested last week in connection with the incident. The family consists of nine children and three grandchildren, with the youngest grandchild being only 40 days old. The land in question is located down 10th Lane in Kollupitiya.  


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