The Naula Magistrate’s Court which conducted an inquest into the death of an area resident following an incident involving the Police, has ordered the Police to further probe the incident and report facts to the Court as evidence has come to light of the commission of a crime.

Observing that matters leading to a crime have been discovered during the inquest of Aluthgedara Thushara, a resident of the Naula area, who was killed in a shooting during a raid conducted by two Police officers in March 2022, the Naula Magistrate's Court ordered the Police to conduct further investigations into the incident, and to report their findings to the Court.

The inquest into the death of Thushara concluded last week, and the Magistrate ruled that the death was due to gunshot wounds. Stating that certain matters leading to a crime have come to light during the hearing of the evidence, she ordered the Police to conduct further investigations and report their findings to the Court within due course.

During the inquest, Thushara, who was killed in a Police shooting in March 2022, three witnesses had given evidence to the effect that after an exchange of words during a body search, a Police Sergeant attached to the Naula Police Station had shot the deceased in the chest with a pistol, while it had also been revealed that several sections of a book with related notes had been erased by the Police.

The Police had earlier stated that after an argument that took place during a drug raid on 3 March 2022, the deceased had attempted to shoot the Police officers after grabbing a pistol from them, and that the pistol had then misfired on the deceased himself.

However, the aggrieved party including family members of the deceased had alleged that the Police had stripped the deceased and searched him on the main road near his house, and that the latter had protested against it. As he was protesting to be searched for the second time, particularly on the main road, the family members had said that one Police officer had taken a pistol and shot him in the chest area after which he had succumbed to the injuries.

There have been several incidents of deaths of persons in Police custody, and during raids in the recent past. The then Public Security Ministry Secretary, Major General (Retired) Jagath Alwis said in 2021 that the Police had been given very clear instructions regarding the prevention of such incidents. Claiming that most of those who had died while being in Police custody and during raids were drug addicts, he said that the Police were however responsible to prevent such incidents from taking place.