Indictments filed against four in Rathupaswala shooting incident

The Attorney General yesterday filed indictments in the Rathupaswala case at the Gampaha High Court.

The case against the four accused in the case will be heard before High Court Judges Menaka Wijesundera (President), Nimal Ranaweera and Nishantha Hapuarachchi.

The indictments are against four Army personnel who are charged with causing the deaths of three persons as well as causing serious injuries to 12 others when they opened fire at a group of protestors at Rathupaswala in Weliweriya in early August 2013.

The villagers of Rathupaswala were protesting against the pollution of their water supplies by the chemicals that were leaking into the waterways by a glove-making factory in the area.

The accused are also charged with cleaning the scene of the incident as well as concealing evidence by collecting spent cartridges from the site after the incident. The Government Analyst checked 138 weapons and 16 spent cartridges and traced them to three of the weapons. Three of the accused are those who handled the weapons while the other accused is the officer in charge of the Army contingent who gave orders to open fire.(CK)