False SMS message personifying President on January first

Investigations underway to search for person ...
who sent SMS under President's name

A number of employees in a well-known media institution in Colombo were recipients of a strange kind of SMS under the name of Mahinda Rajapaksha last January this year. Their faces turned sour when they noticed that unlike at other times when the President greeted for the New Year with flowering words; this time it was a case of obscene words. Why the Hon. President has resorted to something like this in this year was indeed a surprise to all of them.

Later, on inquiring though it was found that this was a joke on the part of the sender, they were not able to locate the identity of the sender of the message. It was after that, that the employees had notified the police.          

As such, the news had even reached the courts too. The Colombo Magistrate had then ordered the police to make inquiries in this respect.

According to a report issued by the Colombo Crime Detection Bureau it was found that this greetings was conveyed through an SMS to the staff of a private media institution on the first of January under the President's name. The police say that since the message had been sent via 3 mobile numbers, some person had on purpose resorted to making fun of the President and because of that it was necessary that relevant information be obtained.

The Magistrate has ordered telephone companies to secure respective phone numbers and relevant details from those responsible and to hand over such information to the police.

Legal experts are of the opinion that offences committed across SMS messages tantamount to violation of the law of Sri Lanka.