• Colombo Addl. Magistrate grants request by family members to not hold inquest in open court, media excluded, wife and secy. testify, two cemetery workers to give evidence on 10 January

Colombo Additional Magistrate Rajindra Jayasuriya yesterday (4) proceeded to conduct the death inquest of Janashakthi PLC Director Dinesh Schaffter in the Additional Magistrate's Chamber instead of in open court as per a request made by the family members of the

deceased.

The inquest was to be conducted in open court last morning (4), and the Additional Magistrate then ordered that it be conducted in the Additional Magistrate’s chambers at the request of Schaffter’s family.

Accordingly, the proceedings of the death inquest were not open to the media, and went on for about two hours in the Additional Magistrate's chamber from 12.30 p.m. During the death inquest, Schaffter’s wife Tania Schaffter and his secretary Patrick Chris Perera,who is said to be a director of a company headed by Schaffter, testified before court.

Two employees of the Borella General Cemetery were also scheduled to testify yesterday.

However, the Additional Magistrate ordered that the death inquest be taken up again on 10 January, at which point the two said employees’ testimonies will be recorded.

Schaffter died at the National Hospital in Colombo on 15 December 2022, after being found tied to the driver’s seat in his vehicle with a wire around his neck. He had left home that afternoon,according to a statement made by his wife, to attend a meeting and had not returned home. His wife had traced Schaffter near the Borella Cemetery via global positioning system technology-based tracking. Perera had then immediately arrived at the scene, following which he had taken Schaffter to the hospital. The hospital confirmed the same day night that Schaffter had passed away upon admission.

Meanwhile, Additional Magistrate Jayasuriya, had, taking into account a request made by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) earlier, allowed the CID to obtain deoxyribonucleic acid(DNA) evidence through tests conducted by the Government Analyst on Schaffter’s blood samples, nails, body parts, and some spot evidence.