SC issues notice on police chief for failing to submit guidelines to avoid 'encounter deaths'

The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice on Police Chief Chandana Wickramaratne to appear in court on April 3 to explain why he failed to submit guidelines to be followed by police officers to avoid ‘encounter deaths’ of suspects while in police custody.

The three-judge bench comprising Justices S. Thurairaja, PC, A.H.M.D. Nawaz and Achala Wengappuli issued notice on the IGP after the Attorney General’s Department informed Court that police had failed to submit the guidelines despite being ordered to do so.

The IGP had earlier been ordered to submit the guidelines following a ruling into a Fundamental Rights petition filed by Fathima Sharmila whose husband died while in the custody of the Kompanna Veediya Police.

The petitioner had alleged that her husband, Mohammed Nizar Mohammed, had been taken into custody by the Kompanna Veediya Police on September 2, 2008 on charges of possessing a hand grenade, murder, attempted murder, and robbery. He was shot dead the following morning.

In the course of the evidence led at the Inquest before the Magistrate, it had been revealed that the deceased had been travelling in a vehicle with eight police officers when he allegedly attempted to seize the weapon of one of them and shoot Police Sergeant Karunathilake, who is the 3rd respondent in the case. Sergeant Karunathilake had then shot the deceased twice, once in the chest and once in the abdomen, allegedly exercising his right of private defence.

Even assuming that the deceased did make an attempt to escape, there were eight trained policemen in the vehicle, with six of them being armed. They could easily have been able to overpower the suspect by inflicting less harm than killing him. As such, the 3rd respondent is seen to have acted in excess of self-defence, the bench comprising Justices Buwaneka Aluwihare, PC, E.A.G.R. Amarasekara and Kumudini Wickramasinghe observed.

The Court has stressed that respondents’ version of the events were contradictory, improbable and thus must be refuted.

The Court ordered the State to pay

Rs.250,000 as compensation to the petitioner. It also ordered the three police officers named as respondents to pay Rs.25,000 each to the petitioner. A Police Inspector and the OIC of the Slave Island Police, who were the 4th and 5th respondent respectively, were ordered to pay Rs. 200,000 each to the petitioner.

“The incident relevant to this application had taken place in 2008, however, this court observes that instances of death of suspects in police custody are continuing to happen, even today. It appears that the hierarchy of the administration had paid scant attention to arrest this trend which does not augur well for the law enforcement and the rule of law,” the Court further observed.

Accordingly, the Court directed the IGP to formulate, issue and implement, guidelines to the police, elaborating the steps that should be taken by each officer to avoid ‘encounter deaths’ of this nature in the future.

M.A. Sumanthiran, PC with Divya Mascaranghe appeared for the Petitioner. Deputy Solicitor General Madhawa Tennakoon appeared for the Respondents.