5 personnel of Peliyagoda Police who say that suspect taken to show hidden weapons died contracting asthma ... taken into custody!

5 personnel of Peliyagoda Police who say that suspect taken to show hidden weapons died contracting asthma ... taken into custody!

Sometime back notorious criminals arrested by police had died unanticipatedly even before they were taken to courts. This trend came to be known as the trend of 'taken to show the weapons', among readers. However, though it was popular at that time, such incidents are random these days. A Sub Inspector and 5 police officers of Peliyagoda Police Crime Branch were taken into custody last afternoon (26) over an alleged incident of a suspect who was arrested over a theft of a vehicle and who had died as a result of being assaulted by the police.

Deceased Shaman Wickramaarachchi (42) a father of two from Kaduwela, Biyagama is a three-wheel

driver by profession. When two other suspects were taken into custody last 24th by the Crime Branch of Peliyagoda Police Headquarters in relation to an incident of theft of vehicles the suspects had admitted that the deceased had helped them in their task. As such, he was taken into police custody while he was at home and it was later found that he is responsible in connection with some other cases of complaints. He had confessed his guilt for the theft of vehicles too. When questioned subsequently as to where the pistol used in the said crime was, he had responded saying "I don't have it with me now ... it's with a friend in Sapugaskanda".

As such, the team of police officers had accompanied him at about 4 in the morning to Sapugaskanda area, but the police who accompanied the suspect had in the process admitted the latter to hospital saying that he had fallen sick all of a sudden. The police had even made a remark and comment to the effect that the suspect had suffered from an asthmatic condition and when trying to struggle to flee from the grasp of the police while being so escorted was therefore hospitalised. After a short while he was admitted to Colombo General Hospital where he passed away.

Doctors who conducted the postmortem found some discrepancy in the data that was provided by the police. What was revealed at the inquest was that the suspect had been assaulted that day. It was further revealed that death was caused by multiple injuries on various regions of the victim's body in addition to internal haemmorage. No signs of an asthmatic condition had been observed. Assistant Superintendent of Police M. Jayalath together with a special team accosted the said 5 police officers and took them into custody and interrogations are underway.