Gammanpila granted bail

Pivithuru Hela Urumaya leader MP Udaya Gammanpila has been granted bail by the Colombo High Court.

Gammanpila was released on a cash bail of Rs.500,000 and two personal bails of Rs.2 million each when a case filed against him on charges of using a fraudulent Power of Attorney to sell the shares of a company was taken up for hearing before Judge Padmini Ranawaka.

Gammanpila was previously arrested by the  Police Special Investigations Unit (SIU)  on June 18.

Singer 'Chillie' remanded over assault

Singer 'Chillie' Thilanka, who was arrested for allegedly assaulting an individual, was remanded till October 25 after being produced before the Kaduwela Magistrate's Court today.

The singer had been sought in connection with an alleged assault on a 56-year-old individual in Talangama on Thursday night. He had surrendered to the Talangama Police this morning.

Police fail to arrest actor/singer for assault

The Thalangama police have so far failed to arrest Thivanka Vidusha alias "Chili", the actor and singer who allegedly assaulted a 57-year-old man last Friday night, causing injuries to him.

The suspect had fled the area after the incident, the police said.

When we visited the Talangama police, to ascertain the progress of the investigation its Crime Branch officers directed us to the Minor Offences Branch and they in turn asked us to meet the OIC. Then another officer said the OIC was on leave. In the end none of the officers present were able to comment on the progress of the investigation.

On Sunday the Talangama OIC Inspector Nishantha Herath said a team of policemen had been deployed to arrest the suspect.

The victim A. W. Sisiralal, a father of two is a daily paid private bus conductor on the 171 route and he was the sole breadwinner of the family.

When we visited him in hospital he said he was unable to support his children and the wife as he could not report to work.

Police later said that they had recorded a statement from the brother of the suspect. The suspect through his lawyer had informed police that he would surrender by yesterday evening, police.

The suspect had not arrived at the police station at the time of going to press.

Deputy Principal in Balangoda abuses 4 students

Parents of four students of Grade Six, in a school in Balangoda alleged to have been subject to abuse by the Deputy Principal, who is also a teacher of Buddhism, have lodged a complaint at the Balangoda Education Zonal office.

Although the complaint was made to the Education Zonal office on the 7th of this month, since the officials had not taken any proper steps or action in this regard even up to yesterday (10) a large group of parents from this particular school engaged in a protest campaign blocking the Colombo-Badulla main Road at Puwakgahawela.

Those who participated in the protest said that, the suspect teacher should be taken into custody immediately and that he should be transferred with immediate effect to another school, as well.

The Assistant Superintendant of Police of Balangoda D. J. Athulathmudalie and Officer-In-Charge of the Balangoda Police Station Udayana Bandara Tennakoon who had gone to the venue as soon as they heard of the protest said that, they will arrest the suspect teacher immediately and produce him in Court. Thereafter, the protestors wound up their protest and left the area.

Balangoda Police said that the suspect Deputy Principal was taken into custody yesterday evening. Police have launched investigations after visiting the relevant school to find out whether other students of this school have been subject to abuse in the same manner or not. A little while later, officials from the Balangoda Education Zonal office arrived at the school and told the parents that legal action will be taken against the suspect teacher.

These students had participated in the concert that had been held at the school on the 6th in conjunction with Teachers' Day. At the end of the concert the students had gone to a room in the school to change their clothes, which was when the abuse had taken place. The students had informed their parents of this incident.

Bus crashes into hillock injuring over 70 children

A bus carrying schoolchildren traveling on the Tahalawakelle - Dayagama mountain highway in Nuwara Eliya last morning crashed into a hillock at Agarapathana injuring over 70 children in it, Police said. 

“The bus reportedly went out of control because of suspension component on the bus had broken,” Police said. According to the driver, the bus kept veering to his right toward a precipice at the curve after its front suspension spring components had snapped off.

The bus driver had driven the bus in the direction of the hillock so as to avoid being pulled towards the precipice.

“This is how the bus driver explained the accident to us,” a Police officer said. According to him the bus had come to a complete stop after hitting the hillock along the road. If it did not crash into the mountain, it would have tumbled downhill with the children,” a police officer said. There were about 100 passengers inside the bus. Asked if it was passenger overload that had caused the technical failure, police said Agarapathana police had yet to study the accident in full.

The accident had taken place around 7.20 a.m.

The children got inside the bus from Thalawakelle to go to school in Agarapathana. Most are students of Agarapathana Tamil Maha Vidyalayam and Sinhala Maha Vidyalaya in the vicinity.

Contacted by the Daily News, Agarapathana Divisional Hospital’s District Medical Officer Dr Arumugam Jeyarajan said 73 schoolchildren were brought to the hospital after the accident on the Thalawakelle- Agarapathanana road.

"Most of the children are 11 or 12 years. Most were in shock. They sustained minor injuries such as bruises and concussions. We treated them and sent them home except for 17 patients who were sent to the Nuwara Eliya Hospital for further treatment.

“Their condition is okay. There are no serious injuries-no compound fractures of the sort or other complications,” Dr. Jeyarajan said.

SLC offers contracts to 70 cricketers

Sri Lanka Cricket has decided to offer annual contracts to around 70 cricketers in the category of youth, emerging and senior players in a bid to encourage them to press for places in the national team and put pressure on the current players.

“There are so many categories of players who are playing cricket so we must look after them.

We want the players who have not played for Sri Lanka not to be idling in club cricket but to start putting pressure on the national players and make every effort to play for the country as well as their clubs,” said SLC president Thilanga Sumathipala addressing a media conference at SLC headquarters yesterday.

“We have decided to look after these cricketers and put them on a national contract. We met about 70 players last Saturday and gave them a proposed agreement and we are informing our member clubs that if there are anybody whom they feel are worthy of contract to inform us.

“We will sign the contracts on October 30. The contract lasts from November 1 to April 30. After that date they are free to play in any part of the world. We want to see that our domestic is stronger and protected and give the players something they can be happy about. Apart from the national players we are also looking after the other players as well,” Sumathipala said. The players’ will be paid between Rs. 25,000 to Rs. 100,000 per month.

Lengthy water cuts due to drought

Water supply will be limited to 18 hours from today, as the demand for water has increased due to the drought in the country, National Water Supply and Drainage Board (NWS&DB) sources said yesterday.The NWSDB has informed the public to save water for a period of one and half days daily, when the supply is available.

“There is not enough water in our supply water tanks. The water supply to Kataragama has been discontinued for the past three days.

Badulla and Mawanella were badly affected. However, we managed to ensure the water supply intermittently to the Mahara and Biyagama areas.” a Water Board official told the Daily News.

“We are unsure until when this situation would prevail. However, we inform the public to use water with care and to save water for later use whenever the supply is available”, he added.

Namal seeks 200 million in compensation

UPFA Parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa yesterday filed a defamation case against the OIC of the Financial Crimes Investigation Division, Premaratne and Sub Inspector, FCID, Don Shanthalal.

The plaintiff has said that these officers filed a malicious, politically biased complaint against him in the Fort Magistrate’s Court, defaming him. Damages up to Rs. 100 million have been demanded from each of the FCID officers cited as defendant in the District Court plaint.

The complaint made by the FCID is of alleged money laundering. Rajapaksa has said that his public reputation as a representative of the people has been tarnished by the defamatory complaint.