SLMC delivers final verdict on Prof. Samarasekara’s role in Thajudeen case

• Found guilty on three out of five charges
• SLMC’s stance that licence to practise cancelled countered by Samarasekara’s legal counsel

By Chathuri Dissanayake 

The Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) has found Prof. Ananda Samarasekara guilty of three out of the five charges filed against him following a formal inquiry over the removal of certain body parts and bones of slain rugby player Wasim Thajudeen, leading to a suspension of his license to practise medico-legal work for six months.

Prof. Samarasekara was the former Colombo Chief Judicial Medical Officer who performed the first postmortem on Thajudeen’s charred body when it was found in 2012. Charges related to the same case filed against the two doctors who worked under Prof. Samarasekara were dismissed by the board, a senior SLMC member told Daily FT.

“When the second autopsy was carried out in 2015 by exhuming Thajudeen’s body, it was found that the chest plate, trachea (windpipe) and two long bones which had symmetrical fractures were missing. The Professional Conduct Committee (PCC) that conducted the inquiry found Prof. Samarasekara guilty of charge one, four and five,” the SLMC member said.

Accordingly, the panel found the professor guilty of removing certain body parts “during the course of the said deceased’s post-mortem examination without following and/or adhering to all aspects of the procedure, laid down in Health Form 42 of the Ministry of Health (the Post-mortem Report) and/or in Chapter 19 of the Manual on Management of Teaching, Provisional, Base and Special Hospitals published in June 1995 by the Ministry of Health, Highways and Social Services, in removing, labeling, and preserving of the deceased’s body parts and conducted yourself in a negligent manner in a professional respect.”

Further, the inquiry found that the former JMO have been “grossly negligent in the discharge of professional duties” and “brought disrepute to the medical profession, acting in violation of the ‘Guidelines on Ethical Conduct for Medical and Dental Practitioners registered with the Sri Lanka Medical Council’ and ‘Sri Lanka Medical Council Instructions on Serious Professional Misconduct to Medical Practitioners and Dentists’ published by the Sri Lanka Medical Council in terms of the Medical Ordinance and amendments thereto.”

Further, the member said the SLMC findings would be presented to court in writing on Monday. Following the six-month-long inquiry Prof. Samarasekara’s SLMC registration has been suspended for six months with effect from last Friday, the SLMC member told Daily FT, explaining that the move disqualifies him from treating patients, doing medical work or performing autopsies during the period.  

However, Professor Samarasekara’s Legal Counsel Thishya Weragoda said that the professor has been suspended from practising medico-legal work but not practising medicine.

“We were only informed verbally not in writing. They said that they would take till Wednesday to give us the decision in writing,” he said.

“His name has not been suspended from being a medial practitioner. He has only been suspended from engaging in medico-legal practice for six months,” he said.