{"id":53520,"date":"2016-04-04T12:22:42","date_gmt":"2016-04-04T19:22:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=53520"},"modified":"2016-04-04T12:22:42","modified_gmt":"2016-04-04T19:22:42","slug":"cid-warned-of-legal-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/04\/04\/cid-warned-of-legal-action\/","title":{"rendered":"CID warned of legal action"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Shamindra Ferdinando\u00a0Courtesy The Island<\/span><\/h2>\n

Former External Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris has told the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) that he reserved the right to take legal action against its refusal to furnish a certified copy of Acting IGP S.M. Wickremesinghe\u2019s directive that he be summoned to record a statement pertaining to the recent detection of explosives in the Chavakachcheri police area.<\/p>\n

Prof. Peiris has requested a certified copy thrice. Subsequently, Prof. Peiris told the CID to include his request in the statement recorded in connection with the Chavakachcheri detection.<\/p>\n

Prof. Peiris called for a copy of Acting IGP\u2019s directive after the CID admitted the absence of first information to pave the way for the former Minister to be summoned.<\/p>\n

A team headed by an ASP recorded former Law Professor\u2019s statement on Saturday morning at the CID headquarters regarding him accusing the government of suppressing information and declaration that the explosives were meant for Wellawatte.<\/p>\n

Prof. Peiris has inquired from the CID whether first information in respect of Chavakachcheri was available in accordance with Section 109, Sub section 1 of the Criminal Procedure Code. When the CID declared that Prof. Peiris had been summoned on a directive given by Acting IGP S.M. Wickremesinghe, the police were reminded that according to Section 74 of the Evidence Ordinance, it (Acting IGP\u2019s directive) was a public document.<\/p>\n

Prof. Peiris said that he had been taken aback by the government\u2019s response to the Chavakachcheri detection. Having expressed shock and dismay at the government\u2019s reaction, Prof. Peiris compared recent statements attributed to Northern Province Governor Reginald Cooray and Defence Secretary Karunasena Hettiarachchi.<\/p>\n

Prof. Peiris has pointed out that NP Governor Cooray asserted that explosives had been brought there to cause destruction whereas Defence Secretary Hettiarachchi ruled out any threat to national security even before the launch of an inquiry.<\/p>\n

Prof. Peiris has recalled immediately after recent fracas in Embilipitiya involving residents and police leading to the death of a father of two, police spokesperson ASP Ruwan Gunasekera declaring that he committed suicide by jumping from a building. Subsequently, the police spokesman had been proved wrong and a thorough inquiry started in the wake of public protests, Prof. Peiris said.<\/p>\n

In his statement, Prof. Peiris strongly condemned Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe\u2019s reaction to the Chavakachcheri detection. The former Minister said that the PM had been concerned about his experience in lighting crackers and knowledge of explosives whereas he neglected the country\u2019s security.<\/p>\n

Prof. Peiris told the CID: “I still have shrapnel in my lungs as a result of a suicide blast in Dec 1999.”<\/p>\n

Prof. Peiris accused Prime Minister Wickremesinghe of trying to make the lethal find at Chavakachcheri a joke.<\/p>\n

Referring to a recent statement made by Northern provincial Council member M.K. Sivajilingham, Prof. Peiris has asked the CID whether he, too, would be summoned to record a statement pertaining to the ongoing inquiry.<\/p>\n

Sivajilingham recently declared that the recovered explosives didn\u2019t belong to the LTTE.<\/p>\n

In response to Prof. Peiris query, the CID said: “We\u2019ll study your statement when considering the next step.”<\/p>\n

Prof. Peiris submitted a set of news items on the Chavakachcheri detection to the CID.<\/p>\n

Prof. Peiris told The Island that the government had been making a silly attempt to deceive the public. The former minister cited a recent media report that the explosives were meant to carry out underwater explosions to catch fish. The government couldn\u2019t ignore the need to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the explosives find without further delay, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Shamindra Ferdinando\u00a0Courtesy The Island Former External Affairs Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris has told the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) that he reserved the right to take legal action against its refusal to furnish a certified copy of Acting IGP S.M. Wickremesinghe\u2019s directive that he be summoned to record a statement pertaining to the recent detection […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53520\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}