Court discharges three suspects in All Saints’ Church bomb detection case

By T. Farook Thajudeen

Two church employees and another visitor to the church who were arrested and detained by the Colombo Crime Division (CCD) over the grenade plant incident in the All Saints’ Church Borella were discharged from the case by the Colombo Additional Magistrate Rajindra Jayasuriya yesterday.

The Magistrate discharged the suspects Krishnasamy Sivasundaram Prasad Miguel and Suriya Gamage Indika on considering the pleadings of the CCD before Court yesterday.

However, the CCD informed the court that on the next court date they will inform the court whether or not they are charging Francis Munindran, the church employee who found the grenade near the altar.

The CCD submitted to court that they had been able to identify the culprit who had planted the grenade as the suspect Dayanada.

The police said that Dayanada had planted bombs at Bellanwila Temple, Lanka Hospitals Narahenpitiya and at the All Saints’ Church, while he had planted the bomb in the church on the instigation of Doctor Shirley Herath.

They said that every month from 4 to 11, Herath suffers from depression and tends to commit such things. The CCD also said that Herath was introduced to Dayananda by Ruwansiri who had sold six bombs to the doctor.

The CCD is conducting further investigations and moved court to release the three suspects who were in detention as the investigations did not reveal any involvement of the suspects in relation to the incident.

PC Rienzie Arsekularatna, appearing on behalf of the three suspects, told court that the police had now released his clients as they are innocent. He further said that the police will take action to release Francis Munindran too.

Counsel PC Neville Abeyratna submitted that what Bishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith said to the media was correct. He said that at the inception the investigations were diverted towards some other direction, but after the revelation of the Bishop it now seems that proper investigations are being conducted.

Senior Counsel Chaminda Athukorala appearing with Counsel Hafeel Fareez on behalf of Herath stigmatised the CCD for maintaining double standards. He said that this was not the first time that the CCD was playing games.

Such situations had occurred on several other occasions. He highlighted the fact that during the investigation into the Lanka Hospital incident at that time, the CCD stated that the bomb was planted there by the hospital servant who detected the bomb in order to get reward. However, the Police and the Minister who is in charge of the Police had changed their stances suddenly and were now saying a different story.

He said that his client is not undergoing any sort of depression or psychiatric conditions. He further said that his client’s life is in danger. The doctor is 77 years of age and has been kept in detention without his relations or his lawyers being allowed to see him.

He also stated that he had complained to the Human Rights Commission (HRC), and there was an inquiry held on Tuesday regarding this complaint carried out by the HRC but the CCD provided no representation during the inquiry.

He said that this is the high-handedness of the CCD and that he will take necessary action on this. He also said that the doctor is in detention with the CCD and was forced to make confessions before the court for the need of the CCD. The Counsel said the doctor has no other alternative other than doing what the CCD says.

He cited several Apex Courts decisions over such confessions of suspects while under detention.

He requested the Magistrate to order the Police to produce the suspect in court for inspection.

The Magistrate, while making her observations, said that she is not satisfied by the way the CCD is conducting investigations and asked the police to conduct impartial and proper investigations.

The case was postponed for 9 February.