Earlier this month, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) arrested three, over their alleged complicity in the custodial death of a female housekeeper, who died while in police custody and is suspected to have been abused during interrogation. The victim was alleged to have robbed a residence of an affluent and influential family, which some believe is the reason that the several Police officers have given her a ‘tough treatment’ to force a confession. It is alleged that the Police offered Rs. 10,000 to the husband of the woman to not press charges against the cops involved.

Custodial deaths, 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. The continued custodial deaths, and that of preventable ‘encounter deaths’, particularly in relation to counter narcotics enforcement and the arrest of those suspected to be ‘hit men’, indicates that the law enforcement agencies prefer to take short cuts, opting to be the judge, the jury and the executioner – instead of enforcing the law.

The abduction and the suspected custodial murder of 31-year-old Kosma Rasin Lasith Chinthaka and 33-year-old Manjula Asela Kumara on 23 January 2019 by a team of policemen in Rathgama, Galle triggered villages in the vicinity to take matters into their own hands. By blocking the Colombo – Galle coastal road and the rail track, these villagers demanded justice for the two young men, where both were taken for questioning without a warrant, allegedly tortured and killed, and suspected to have been dismembered and torched to destroy evidence. Those police officers who were charged with the kidnapping and murder of both men, are now before the Judiciary. The fact that such judicial proceedings have not acted as a deterrent to other police officers, as the practice seemingly continues, is very concerning.

Like the Rathgama custodial deaths, many Sri Lankans may have by now forgotten the custodial deaths of Mabulage Dinith Melan Mabula, alias “Urujuwa”, and Dharmakeerthi Tharaka Perera Wijesekera, alias “Kosgoda Tharaka”, which took place on 11 and 13 May 2021. The Police often claim that the suspects, who are supposed to be handcuffed, attempted to hurl a grenade, or shoot at them with a weapon which was concealed during a field excursion to “show where evidence is hidden”. The two were killed while being in custody of a special police unit, which was led by a DIG, who has built up quite the blemished reputation.

However, last weekend, a suspect who was in custody, and was being taken to “show where evidence” had attempted to escape from the vehicle he was being taken in and ended by dying in custody following a melee with police officers. While what transpired in the vehicle is not yet known to the public, and there may be valid reasons for officers to act in self-defence, it doesn’t release the Police of the responsibility towards the wellbeing of a suspect while in their care. Similarly, another suspect, believed to be one of the “shooters” in a recent roadside double murder, yes there are many of those, was shot dead yesterday during an ‘encounter’ with the Police.

While not understating the risks involved in combating organised crime, the police must not also forget their duty to due process. The suspects who died untimely deaths at the hands of the Police may be responsible for crimes, but they were not given the same due process which we all deserve before the law. They were not found guilty by the judicial process. 

The problem is, once you use the same narrative several times, it loses credibility and no one believes you further. The Judiciary has also cautioned the Police about custodial deaths, and forced confessions on multiple occasions. In March of this year, the Supreme Court issued notice to the Inspector General of Police of his failure to submit guidelines, elaborating the steps that should be taken by police officers to avoid ‘encounter deaths’, and custodial deaths.

Lack of political will and weak understanding of how law and order, justice should be practiced, has kept the abhorrent practice alive. The tragedy is that many Sri Lankans believe that a “suspect deserves what he or she gets” and does not comprehend the importance of due process, and of being innocent until proven guilty.  Perhaps, we should shoulder the blame for the state of affairs. Perhaps we need a community-wide change in how we approach crime, law and order, and justice. Perhaps then, when a majority of the public stop cheering such deaths and seeking revenge over justice, the Police and the policy makers who oversee them, will be moved to change their behaviour.