A petition has been filed in the Court of Appeal seeking the resumption of legal action pertaining to the deaths of 11 inmates during the 2020 Mahara Prison riots and the issuance of the necessary directives and instructions to several parties including the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
The petition was filed in a context where the Attorney General’s (AG) Department has issued a letter to the CID asserting that the incident was an act of self-defense by the Police and that all actions were conducted in accordance with Section 77 of the Prisons Ordinance. The petition said that based on this assertion, the AG’s Department had indicated that there was no necessity to continue with the case and had expressed their intention to close the proceedings.
In the petition dated 20 December 2024, Mehanuwara Gedara Lasanthi, spouse of one of the deceased inmates represented by attorney Senaka Perera, had named as respondents the Attorney General, Director of the CID, and the Magistrate of the Welisara Magistrate Court.
The petitioner challenged the submission made by the Additional Solicitor General appearing on behalf of the State in the case bearing no. B3118/20 at the Welisara Magistrate Court on 17 December 2024, withdrawing the case in which the Magistrate had on 26 April 2023, delivered an order directing the CID to take appropriate, prompt action and arrest all the suspects involved in the matter and present them to court in accordance with the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The petition read that the Magistrate had, based on evidence and post-mortem reports, determined that the deaths had resulted from gunshot injuries to areas above the abdominal cavity, which the petitioner contended amounts to violations of the provisions of the Prisons Ordinance of Sri Lanka No. 16 of 1877.
“The Petitioner further states that the Learned Magistrate, in the order dated 26 April, 2023, concluded the Prison Superintendent did not conduct a humanitarian operation to subdue the inmates by applying minimal force or aiming below the knee. Instead, the post-mortem reports revealed that the gunshot wounds were inflicted on vital organs above the abdomen, indicating that shots were fired indiscriminately in multiple directions. The evidence suggests that the required minimal force was not observed during the incident.”
The petitioner stated that accordingly, as a reasonable suspicion has been raised that these deaths are prima facie crimes, the Magistrate of the Welisara Magistrate’s Court on 26 April 2023, ordered the CID to take appropriate action and arrest all the suspects involved in this matter and present them to court in accordance with the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The petitioner had further said that it is both unjust and unfair to withdraw the charges and discontinue the case at this stage.
The petitioner had said that in light of the abovementioned circumstances, she is entitled under the law for, a Writ of Certiorari to quash the document issued by AG, a Writ of Mandamus to the AG and the CID Director directing them to file the charges for all suspects in the case at the Welisara Magistrate’s Court, and a Writ of Mandamus to the CID Director directing to act according to the order made by the Welisara Magistrate on 26 April 2023.