Extreme weather: Landslide warning as heavy rains lash island

Meteorology Department officials warned of incessant rain and thundershowers throughout the country today as well due to a low pressure area developed in the vicinity of Sri Lanka.

The Department duty forecaster said the low pressure area, located over Batticaloa coast yesterday was likely to intensify further in to a depression.

However it is expected to move away from Sri Lanka by today towards India.


Four spill gates of Upper Kothmale opened automatically following heavy rains yesterday. Picture by Asela Kuruluwansa
Heavy rains lashed throughout the country yesterday and many roads were inundated. The National Building Research Organisation  (NBRO) issued landslide warning for several areas in eight districts due to the inclement weather conditions.

The eight districts are Badulla, Monaragala, Kandy, Ratnapura, Kurunegala, Nuwara Eliya, Kegalle and Matale.

Irrigation Department officials said five spill gates of Daduru Oya and four spill gates of Weheragala resovoires were opened due to incessant rains. The people living down stream were advised to be vigilant over the rising water levels.

The highest rainfall of 145.8mm for the 24 hours ending yesterday noon was recorded from Pottuvil while Colombo received a rainfall of 76.4mm and Trincomalee 90.2mm.

Meanwhile, motorists using the Hatton-Nuwara Eliya road are advised to drive cautiously due to the heavy mist.

“Cloudy skies and showers or thundershowers are expected over most parts of the island. Very heavy falls (around 150 mm) are also likely at some places. There may be temporary localised strong winds during thundershowers. The public is requested to take adequate precautions to minimise damages caused by lightning activity,” the weather forecast issued by the Meteorology Department stated.

It further said sudden roughness of the sea areas associated with sudden increase of wind speed (up to 70-80 kmph) could be expected over the surrounding sea areas of the island. “Intermittent showers or thundershowers will occur in the surrounding sea areas of the island, particularly in the Northern, Eastern, Southern and Gulf of Mannar sea areas. Winds will be North-westerly to Westerly along the sea areas extending from Kankasanthurai to Hambantota via Puttalam and Galle, andSouth-westerly to South-easterly elsewhere. The wind speed will be 40-50 kmph and can be strengthen up to 70 kmph at times,” it stated. Two people have gone missing and over 7,000 are affected due to the torrential rains experienced due to a atmospheric disturbance. Two people bathing down stream are reported missing after a private power generation facility in Kegalle had reportedly opened gates of a tank located in Gurugoda Oya.

Wariyapola youth abducted for ransom rescued by police

A youth who was abducted for ransom in Wariyapola was found abandoned near a clock tower in Nikaweratiya early Sunday morning.

According to the Kurunegala SSP, S.W.Mahesh Senaratne two suspects were arrested in connection with the abduction, as details of the other suspects involved had come into light upon investigation.

Police added that the youth, a son of a businessman, was abducted by a group who came by car on Saturday night. A complaint was lodged with the police regarding the incident. Police have begun  to arrest the remaining suspects.

The captors were demanding a ransom of Rs.20 million for the youth.

Rajagiriya Flyover project to reduce traffic in Colombo

Deputy Minister Dr. Harsha de Silva said that the work on Rajagiriya Flyover, a major project in reducing traffic in Colombo, will begin in July 2016.

Updating a Facebook status, he added that the work is planned to be finished by January 2018.

The project is financed via a soft loan from the Government of Spain, he also said.

"Soil testing has already begun. Soon the detours will be announced." De Silva also said.

The Rajagiriya junction is a major bottleneck of traffic. The vehicle volume on a typical day in 90,000.

It is expected that the travel time from Battaramulla to Nelum Pokuna will be reduced by half after the flyover is constructed.

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Wasim Thajudeen murder: Arrested OIC to make confession before Magistrate

Former Narahenpita Crimes OIC Sumith Champika Perera arrested for allegedly covering up evidence in connection with the murder of Wasim Thajudeen yesterday informed Court through his lawyer that he is ready to make a confession before the Magistrate over the incident.

Senior Counsel Ajith Pathirana appearing on behalf of the former Crimes OIC told Colombo Additional Magistrate that his client would reveal everything he knew about the incident before the Magistrate. 

Defence Counsel Ajith Pathirana informed Court that the Magistrate has jurisdiction to record a statement being a confession in accordance with the Section 127 of the Criminal Procedure Code. The Defence Counsel further told Court his client had  acted as per the instructions given by then senior police officers. Defence counsel moved Court that his client be released on bail on whatever bail condition the Court may deem fit.

However, Additional Magistrate Nishantha Peiris ordered that the suspect be further remanded till May 26 because the CID are yet to conclude their preliminary investigations into the incident.

Meanwhile, the Additional Magistrate issued an order directing the Mobitel mobile service providing company that telephone call conversation details pertaining to the investigation be handed over to the CID for further investigations.

Senior State Counsel Dilan Ratnayake appearing on behalf of the Attorney General submitted to Court that the CID has recorded statements from 20 police officers regarding the investigations over covering up evidence in connection with the murder of Wasim Thajudeen. He further said it will take a long time to conclude the investigation due to its complexity.

On July 27, 2015 the CID submitted to Court that the death of Thajudeen was not an accident but a murder.

While delivering the verdict, Colombo Additional Magistrate Nishantha Peiris on February 25 this year ruled that the death appeared to be a murder and ordered the CID Director to immediately arrest all suspects involved in the incident and produce them before Courts. Thajudeen was killed, apparently, in a road accident in Colombo in May 2012.

The CID had informed court that investigations conducted so far had revealed that Thajudeen’s teeth had been broken, the bones in the pelvic region also broken and his neck pierced with a sharp instrument prior to his death.

The CID added that muscles in his legs had been cut with a piece of a broken class. Earlier, police maintained that Thajudeen was driving to the airport and had lost control of his car and crashed into the wall of Shalika Grounds at Park Road, Narahenpita, and that his vehicle had exploded within seconds of the crash.





Missing body parts :SLMC files charge sheets against former JMO 

Lakmal Sooriyagoda

Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) yesterday informed Court that the SLMC has filed charge sheets against former Colombo Chief Judicial Medical Officer Prof. Ananda Samarasekara and two other Medical Officers, over the missing of several bones and other body parts of former Rugby player Wasim Thajudeen.

Counsel Chathura Galhena appearing on behalf of the SLMC told Colombo Additional Magistrate Nishantha Peiris that the penal of the JMO including Prof. Ananda Samarasekara had been summoned for a disciplinary inquiry and the SLMC was in its final stage to conclude the inquiry.

“The SLMC has gathered prima facie evidence against the panel of doctors who were involved in performing the first postmortem inquiry into the body of Wasim Thajudeen,” Mr. Galhena added.

Taking into consideration the facts, the Additional Magistrate ordered the Registrar of Sri Lanka Medical Council that the full report pertaining to the disciplinary inquiry against the JMO panel be submitted in Court before next hearing date. The prosecutors alleged that the conduct of the former Colombo JMO and other officials were not at a satisfactory level and they have neglected their duties.

On a previous occasion, former Chief JMO Prof. Ananda Samarasekara had informed Court that several bone parts of Wasim Thajudeen’s body had gone missing and unable to be located in the deep freezer or the mortuary coolers at the Colombo JMO’s office.

He said he instructed two minor staff members to store the body parts in the deep freezer. However, two minor staff members had denied the facts that the body parts were entrusted to them by Prof. Samarasekara.

Basil Rajapaksa Arrested by FCID

Former Minister of Economic Development Basil Rajapaksa has been arrested by the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID), a short while ago. 

He was arrested after arriving at the FCID to give a statement in connection with a land issue in Matara. The former Minister is to be produced before court today (12). 

Basil Rajapaksa was previously arrested by the FCID in April last year on alleged financial misappropriations in the Divi Neguma Department. Former Economic Development Ministry Secretary Dr. Nihal Jayatilaka and former Director General of the Divineguma Department, R.R.K. Ranawaka, were also arrested along with minister on the same charge.  They were released on bail on June 15, 2015 while the case is still pending in the Kaduwela Magistrate’s Court.

Risad Badhiutheen’s brother in land fraud

North central provincial councilor Rifkhan Badiudeen, brother of industries and commerce minister Risath Badiudeen, is under investigation by the CID over a land fraud, ‘Rivira’ reports.

Submissions made by OIC of commercial crime investigation division Nalini Dissanayake to the Colombo chief magistrate’s court yesterday (11) said Rifkhan had prepared bogus deeds and sold a 40-acre land, situated at Talaimannar and worth more than Rs. 42 million.

Last November, Abdul Cassim Mohamed Salahi of no. 15 A/1/1, Sri Saddharma Mawatha, Colombo 10, complained to the CID over the fraud involving the land called Upputirav or Vettitirav.

The complainant said a group led by Rifkhan was not allowing him to enter the land which he had bought on 25 June 2013.

He cited plans 1747 of 2012/07/22 and lots 01 and 02 of 1747 A of 2013/01/30 prepared by licensed surveyor K.V. Sivakumaran, and said he bought the said land from Annamaha Vaas Soosai Theos, Pesilica Dias, Soosai Dias Lawrence, Soosai Anthony Dias, Soosai Dias Sagayam Dias and Soosai Dias Julias Dias.

The complaint said those who had sold him the land had the right to the land by deeds prepared by Mannar notary registrar Thomasupillai Swamipillai of 107 of 02 February 1884 and 3202 of 04 February 1894.

Several months after Salahi had bought the land and demarcated its boundaries, Rifkhan and his group had prepared fake deeds and sold the said land to Estaf Capital City Diggala (Pvt). Ltd.

Kusal Perera cleared of doping charges

Kusal Perera, the Sri Lanka wicketkeeper-batsman, is free to resume playing cricket with immediate effect after the ICC lifted the provisional suspension imposed on him for doping. 

The ICC said there was no decisive evidence that Perera, who was suspended in December 2015, had used performance-enhancing substances after a detailed examination of the Qatar-based testing facility's finding 19-Norandrostenedione - the banned substance - in Perera's sample.

The withdrawal is the result of a sustained challenge from Perera's legal team, who according to the ICC "in a recent letter", had "suggested for the first time that the Qatar laboratory might have misidentified impurities in the samples as 19-Norandrostenedione, given the very low concentrations of that substance found in the samples".

In response, the ICC said it hired an independent expert to review all of the Qatar laboratory's findings. Though the expert concluded the lab had correctly identified the substance in the samples, the expert's view was that the lab's finding was not sustainable. This was because, "for various scientific and technical reasons, it could not be ruled out that the 19-Norandrostenedione was produced naturally in the player's body and/or formed in the samples after the player provided them."

The ICC then relayed these concerns to the lab, which has now "withdrawn the Adverse Analytical Finding and is instead reporting an Atypical Finding." The lab said no further testing on Perera's samples were warranted, but did recommend "the monitoring of the player's steroid profile moving forward".

Essentially, the case has been struck down, because the independent expert cast doubt upon the scientific and technical means by which the lab arrived at the conclusion that there was 19-Norandrostenedione in Perera's urine.

Perera, who maintained his innocence throughout, missed the entire tour of New Zealand, a bilateral T20 series against India, the Asia Cup, and the World T20, due to the provisional suspension brought on by the charges against him. He was also not named in Sri Lanka's Test squad for England. Perera featured in all three formats for Sri Lanka prior to the suspension, and had also been the Test wicketkeeper and no. 7 batsman.

"Had it not been for the diligence of Mr Perera's legal team and the ICC's own desire to uncover the explanation for the reported findings, the consequences could well have been different, and that should be of concern to all involved in the fight against doping," ICC CEO Dave Richardson said. "We regret what Mr Perera has had to endure, and would like to commend him for the manner in which he has conducted himself throughout this period

"We wish to make it clear that there is no evidence that Mr Perera has ever used performance-enhancing substances and we wish him well in his future cricketing endeavours."

Perera has not been training with the Sri Lanka team, putting a dent in the likelihood of his being added to the 17-man Test squad presently in England. However, it remains a possibility. The selectors may see fit to have him join the team, following what will be received by team management as an unjust suspension of a player's career. In any case, Perera is likely to be in the fray for the limited-overs matches that follow the Tests.

Unlike in Yasir Shah's recent doping case, the ICC had not previously named the substance found in each of Perera's samples. However, the withdrawal of charges after as many as five months, does throw the World Anti-Doping Agency's testing mechanisms, and the processes at the Qatar lab in particular, into question.

"The ICC is troubled in this case by the fact that the Qatar laboratory has issued an Adverse Analytical Finding that has then had to be withdrawn," Richarson said.

"Whilst I am confident that this is an isolated incident in respect of tests commissioned by the ICC, we are seeking an urgent explanation from WADA and the laboratory in an attempt to understand what has transpired and what will be done to ensure it does not happen again. We will also immediately review our own internal processes to see whether there might be additional steps over and above those required by WADA that the ICC could put in place in order to give international cricketers further comfort."

Perera has largely laid low through his suspension, and has had the support of Sri Lanka Cricket. SLC had been particularly involved in finding him legal counsel. As 19-Norandrostenedione is a directly performance-enhancing substance, he faced a ban of up to four years if the findings and their consequent charges had been upheld.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

Bribery Commission files case against Sajin de Vass Gunawardena

The Commission to Investigate allegations of Bribery or Corruption has filed a case against Former Parliamentarian Sajin de Vass Gunawardene over his failure to declare assets during the years 2011 and 2012.

The case was taken up before Colombo Additional Magistrate Aruni Attigalle.

The attorney appearing on behalf of the Former MP, requested court for time in order to obtain necessary documents pertaining to the case.

Therefore, court ordered that the case be postponed until September 15.