The Colombo Magistrate’s Court ordered the remand of Commissioner General of Prisons Herath Mudiyanselage Thushara Nishantha Upuldeniya, who was arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department on a number of charges including illegally using the Presidential Amnesty to release other prisoners, aiding and abetting the provision of false information and reports to the court by submitting false documents, until tomorrow (11).
When the case was taken up before the court, Additional Solicitor General Dilipa Peiris, who appeared for the Criminal Investigation Department, stated that 57 prisoners had been released illegally during the previous Christmas celebrations.
In addition, the Additional Solicitor General pointed out that 11 other prisoners were also illegally released in this manner during the release of prisoners for the Independence Day celebrations, and that this is the case during the ongoing investigations. He requested that the suspect not be granted bail as further investigations are being carried out in this regard.
Although a bail application was made on behalf of the suspect, the Additional Magistrate, while rejecting the application, stated that the bail application could not be considered as the investigation is ongoing at this time.
Additional Solicitor General Dilipa Peiris on behalf of the Attorney General and Attorney Darshana Kuruppu on behalf of the suspect Commissioner General of Prisons presented the facts before the court.
Additional Solicitor General Dileepa Peiris, appearing for the Criminal Investigation Department, presented the facts before the court, “Your Honor… This suspect is the Commissioner General of Prisons of Sri Lanka. He has been arrested and produced before the court in connection with an incident of abusing the pardon granted by the President to persons convicted on court orders. Your Honor…
He has also abused your judicial power. Your Honor… The Inspector General of Police of this country has maintained a private attack force and attacked a hotel that is hostile to him, was remanded and has now been released on bail. The Controller of Immigration and Audit is also currently remanded on charges of contempt of court by failing to implement court orders. Now the Commissioner General of Prisons. Your Honor… These individuals are running a separate empire within their institutions,” he stated.
The Additional Solicitor General further explained, “Your Excellency, under Article 34 of the Constitution, the President has the power to pardon persons convicted by the courts. Under that, the President can pardon persons of his choice. Generally, general pardons are granted to prisoners on special days such as Vesak and Christmas. In that case, the Secretary to the Ministry of Justice, through the Commissioner General of Prisons, calls for reports from the prisons in the island. The Commissioner General of Prisons then categorizes them and submits them to the Secretary to the Ministry of Justice on the prisoners who should be pardoned. The Secretary to the Ministry of Justice then forwards that report to the Secretary to the President. This is the normal procedure. Under that, the Ministry of Justice is taking steps to call for a report on the prisoners who should be pardoned on the previous Vesak day. Accordingly, reports were called from 28 prisons in the island. Finally, the Commissioner General of Prisons submitted a list of 388 persons who should be pardoned to the Court. “It has been forwarded to the Ministry Secretary,” the Additional Solicitor General said.
The Additional Solicitor General then explained the facts further and said, “Your Honor… the court has imposed a fine of Rs. 2 million on a defendant named Athula Thilakaratne who was convicted by the Anuradhapura High Court. The court ordered that the fine be collected as compensation and remanded the person in custody. However, when this case was taken up in the Anuradhapura High Court yesterday, the prison officials informed that he had been granted a presidential pardon and released. Your Honor… this person’s name is not included in the list of 388 prisoners who were granted a general pardon and released on the previous Vesak day. Similarly, the name of this person named Thilakaratne is not included in the list of 36 prisoners presented by the Anuradhapura Prison Superintendent for granting a general pardon on the Vesak day. If so, how did this happen, Your Honor?” the Deputy Solicitor General asked. Asked.
The Additional Solicitor General also pointed out that there is a need to establish a separate investigation unit to investigate the assets and liabilities of high-ranking officials including prison superintendents serving in prisons across the country.
The Commissioner General of Prisons was then taken to the Welikada Prison by a prison bus.