Former Minister Champika Ranawaka arrested allegedly for Perverting the course of justice
Posted on December 18th, 2019
Sri Lanka News
Former Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka has been arrested by the Colombo Crimes Division (CCD) in connection with the road accident at Rajagiriya in 2016.
The Attorney General had advised the Senior DIG of Colombo to arrest and produce the UNF Parliamentarian before court.
Accordingly MP Ranawaka was arrested by police acting on the AG’s advice.
He was arrested for allegedly causing grievous injury to a person by a rash and negligent act and for switching drivers in a road traffic accident.
Perverting the course of justice is an offence committed when a person prevents justice from being served on him/herself or on another party. In England and Wales it is a common law offence, carrying a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Statutory versions of the offence exist in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Ireland, and New Zealand. The Scottish equivalent is defeating the ends of justice,[1] while the South African counterpart is defeating or obstructing the course of justice.[2]
Doing an act tending and intending to pervert the course of public justice[3] is an offence under the common law of England and Wales.
Perverting the course of justice can be any of three acts:
- Fabricating or disposing of evidence
- Intimidating or threatening a witness or juror
- Intimidating or threatening a judge
Also criminal are:
- conspiring with another to pervert the course of justice, and
- intending to pervert the course of justice
This offence, and the subject matter of the related forms of criminal conspiracy, have been referred to as:
- Perverting the course of justice
- Interfering with the administration of justice
- Obstructing the administration of justice
- Obstructing the course of justice
- Defeating the due course of justice
- Defeating the ends of justice
- Effecting a public mischief[4]
This proliferation of alternative names is “somewhat confusing”.[5]
This offence is also sometimes referred to as “attempting to pervert the course of justice”. This is potentially misleading. An attempt to pervert the course of justice is a substantive common law offence and not an inchoate offence. It is not a form of the offence of attempt, and it would be erroneous to charge it as being contrary to section 1(1) of the Criminal Attempts Act 1981.[6]
This offence is triable only on indictment.[7]
In 2016, the vehicle in which the former Megapolis and Western Province Development Minister was traveling in had collided against a motorcycle, causing life-threatening injuries to its rider.
The injured youth was identified as Sandeepa Sampath from the Godagama area.
A friend of this youth came forward saying he had given a chase to the vehicle that caused the accident and that it was MP Patali Champika who had driven the vehicle.
Despite the youth’s testimony, another person had surrendered to the Borella Police over the incident.
Although footage obtained from CCTV cameras were used in the investigation, the footage from the day of the incident had already erased, the police had told the court when the case was taken up in March 2016.
However, the Colombo Crimes Division (CCD) recently presented submissions to the Colombo Magistrate’s Court on the alleged hit-and-run case.
The CCD sought the court to temporarily suspend the foreign travels of the parliamentarian and the person who claimed to have driven the vehicle at the time of the incident.
Taking the request into consideration, the magistrate temporarily imposed an overseas on Ranawaka and his then-driver.