How Sumith of Embilipitiya was pushed down by police ....

How Sumith of Embilipitiya was pushed down by police ....

wife explains again

A statement giving a descriptive account by the wife of the deceased youth being pushed down by police officers during a conflict that erupted

regarding a certain youth of Embilipitiya recently was published in a weekend newspaper. Given below is the statement given by her to the Divaina newspaper:

"My name is Munasingha Aarachchige Sashika Nishamani Munasingha. Age, 29 years. My husband's name is Jayawardena Subasinghage Sumith Prasanna Jayawardena. It's now nine years since we married. We were living in a house down a house No. 103 in New Town, Embilipitiya. We have a daughter. Her name is Teshani Chamathka Jayawardena. She is studying at Embilipitiya President's College in the 3rd Year. I am with child. I am a pregnant woman of five months. My husband didn't have a permanent job as such. What he did was hiring vans. But we lived nicely. My husband is not someone who would rustify and engage in affrays. He had very good qualities. He had a wonderful affection for our daughter. From the time we married we were so loving to each other.

Last 4th there was a celebration because of Mendis Maama's daughter attaining puberty. That celebration was going on day and night. Because I was not feeling that well that night I didn't attend the event .... only my husband went. I got ready to go to sleep at about 11.15 in the night. Just then I heard a big noise from where the celebrations were going on. I heard the noise .... "Budu ammo gahanna epa .... marana epa!". I awoke my daughter and went towards that place. When I went there I noticed some people were being battered by another crowd of people with clubs on the middle of the road, beating them there. A little distance away there was a police jeep parked.

I went to the spot where somebody shouted 'Apita gahanna epo!' Mendis maama's wife and another nenda were helping Mendis maama and they were accompanying him and were going upstairs from downstairs. At the same time I too went upstairs and looked where my husband was. I heard my husband's voice from down. From upstairs itself I looked down. He was sitting in the corridor and I heard him telling a police officer, 'Though you wear a police uniform, don't hit people like that'. Then that police officer was saying, 'Thawa kiyapan ... thawa kiyapan' and he was videoing this scene from his mobile phone. Later I started going to the place where my husband was, saying 'don't shout ... don't shout!' and pressed my palm against his mouth. Just then Mendis maama's daughter too came there and held my husband's arm and dragged him inside the house saying 'aiye .. we'll go ... let's go'.

Later I took my husband to where we were eating. Those who were nearby also said 'aiye .. finish eating and go home with nangi'. As I served the food and gave the food to my husband's hand, the Embilipitiya Police Assistant Superintendent of Police and the Headquarters Inspector of Police arrived there with some others. Just then the ASP said 'this is the fellow ... get this chap'. I told the ASP 'don't take him away .... we're now trying to go home'. Then the ASP reprimanded me in filth and pushed me aside. 'I am a mother who is with baby' I shouted. Even then the officers who were there assaulted my husband and was dragging him along the ground. Right then I also saw two other 'aiya's being beaten with batons by the police. Then I called my husband's mother over the phone and told her about this. After that I went behind the police who were dragging my husband. Even when near the flight of steps going up to Mendis maama's house I told the police, 'we were trying to go home ... let us go'. Even then the police shouted at me in obscene language and pushed me aside. 'I am a mother with child ... don't beat my husband'. So shouting again, I cried. When shouting like that one police officer pointed a gun at me and shouted at me in filth. In that instance the police were pushing me and started taking my husband to the top floor.

I heard my husband yelling, 'don't hit me'. Just then there was a noise of glass breaking. I ran upstairs. Even just at that moment the ASP was trying to push my husband down from the edge of the corridor. 'Aney ... don't push me down' I heard my husband shouting. I ran close to my husband. Just as I was going there, the ASP pushed my husband down from the floor. I the shouted 'aiyo .. what did you do?' Just then the ASP left that place. There was a red-coloured curtain with frills there. When I came towards that curtain Mendis maama's wife too was at that place, I saw. I told that nenda that aiya was pushed down. Just then nenda shouted 'budu puthe what happened?' We both yelled 'what is this cursed thing that has been done!' When I looked down from where my husband had been pushed down I saw him lying face upwards. Just then I noticed the ASP giving a signal with his head implying something to a police officer. That police officer was nudging my husband's head this way and that way with his foot as if to inquire. Then the ASP said 'put that body into the three-wheeler'.

'Take aiya as soon as possible to hospital!' I screamed from upstairs itself. But I didn't see him being put inside the vehicle and taken away. After about 45 minutes later I, my husband's mother, elder sister's son, daughter and my daughter also went on foot to Embilipitiya Hospital. We went in a clique because we were scared to go alone. But the security at the hospital didn't allow me to go inside at that moment. I was told that the patient is inside the theatre and that the doctors were attending on him; as such that I could not be allowed inside. There were a large number of policemen armed with guns even at the hospital. I was wailing at the hospital compound for two hours. During that period I came to know that my husband was given a blood transfusion. But we were not given permission to see my husband. The following morning around six the patient was dispatched to Colombo National Hospital in an ambulance saying that his condition was serious. Because my husband's condition was aggravating right along, he was admitted to Ratnapura Hospital. There an operation was done and his left arm had been amputated. Doctors at both hospitals had used maximum effort to save my husband's life. But my darling husband had left us during early in the morning hours of the 07th.

My husband died because the ASP of Embilipitiya Police had assaulted him and pushed him down from the top floor. The day after the incident happened (05th) we went to the Ratnapura ASP's office to make a complaint about this injustice that happened. The DIG was not there at that time. There was another police officer there. I told that I came from Embilipitiya to lodge a complaint. Then that officer asked whether it is the Embilipitiya police case. 'Before you tell us we know that case. Do you know the gravity of what you are doing? Though you are complaining against police officers we can't give you a copy of the complaint to take this to courts. We'll enquire from the side of the police about what took place. You will have to tell this what you are saying, word by word at every place ... otherwise it's you who will fall into trouble. Though your husband was in hospital do you know that he's a big criminal? There are 4 police officers whom he had assaulted and are in hospital'.

That police officer was talking totally on behalf of the police. Later I told that police officer that what I saw was that only one police officer was with a bandage round his two fingers and that I didn't see the others who were injured. After that when I was relating the incident that happened, that police officer asked me how I came to know that it was police officers who had come there in civil clothes and that if he removed that uniform he was wearing and came in different clothes how I (deceased's wife) would know whether I am a police officer or not. Later I told him that no one in the family were armed with clubs.

That police officer then once again questioned me 'how do you know that it was the ASP himself who came?' Then I told him that he came for a school meeting some time back when he got his post as HQI. That I came to know that that very same person came to Embilipitiya after he got his position as ASP. After that this police officer is saying, 'from those things that you told, only that part is right .... and he asked me, 'if that ASP is brought before you ... would you tell these things that I am saying now in this very same manner?' I replied in the positive. I said, 'I am feeling faintish .... will it take some more time to record the statement?' and asked so from that police officer. Then that police officer said, 'why did a sick person come to complain .... you could have gone to the hospital no'. Then my mother came there and said, 'sir, she is in a sick state .... don't give her worries so much like this ...', so saying she pleaded. Then that officer replied, 'even in courts cross-examining is done like that. This is not something done in five or ten minutes'. So saying he spoke roughly to mother.

My complaint was recorded on several pages and I was told to place my signature on the last page. I was not even given a chance to go through the complaint. After that we went home".