Chairman of the “Magen Ratata” organization and a social activist Sanjaya Mahawatta, who was arrested by the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) on Thursday (27), has been remanded until July 5 based on order made by the Colombo Magistrate’s Court.
The TID, who arrested Mahawatta on Thursday, produced the suspect before the Colombo Chief Magistrate Thilina Gamage yesterday (28). Mahawatta was arrested on a charge of publishing false information about the Police and senior police officers. In addition, the TID stated before the Magistrate that the suspect has failed to provide his permanent address to the Court and the Police and said that he is a suspect on whom the Homagama Magistrate’s Court has issued a warrant to be arrested. Accordingly, the Colombo Chief Magistrate ordered to remand the suspect until July 5 and to produce him on July 1 before the Homagama Magistrate’s Court who had issued a warrant to arrest the suspect.
The “Magen Ratata” organization Chairman was called to the Terrorist Investigation Division on Thursday by the DIG in charge of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), to record a statement regarding a case of making false statements on YouTube channels despite the completion of investigations into an audio recording of a conversation with criminals.
The Government Analyst has conducted a voice test of the police officer concerned and has confirmed that the voice in the audio recording was not of the said police officer. Accordingly, during the interrogation, Mahawatta has said that he had never seen the DIG in charge of the CID. He has further said that at no time did he have any type of conversation with him or listen to the conversation of the concerned police officer.
Mahawatta has further said that he made the statement based on a video that was circulated on a YouTube channel which is run by a retired police officer who is living overseas. There are many police divisions that investigate criminals coming under the DIG in charge of the CID like the Anti-Terrorism and Investigation Division and the Illegal Assets Investigation Division.
Accordingly, the investigating officers stated that Mahawatta has acted in a manner that causes hatred and disrespect towards the CID and the DIG in charge. In such a background, it has revealed that Mahawatta has acted in such a way as to break the existing trust in the relevant law enforcement agencies by causing hatred or disrespect in the people towards the concerned Police investigation divisions by continuously making false accusations about the relevant police officer.
Based on the findings by the investigating officers of the TID, Mahawatta, the suspect in connection with the incident was arrested by the TID.
Varuna Dayaratne
