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Witnesses fail to identify Lohan and Chanuka

By Sarath Samaranayake and Thilak Ekanayaka of Kandy

Former Deputy Defence Minister General Anuruddha Ratwatte and his two sons Lohan Ratwatte and Chanuka Ratwatte were produced before the Teldeniya Magistrate Inoka Ranasinghe last morning under remand custody in connection with the Udatalawinna murder of ten persons on the last General Election day.

General Anuruddha Ratwatte was flown to the Teldeniya Stadium from Colombo in a special helicopter and from there taken to the Court premises in a special Prison van under heavy security arrangements provided by the armed Police. All the surrounding roads were closed for security purposes.A crowd of about 250 persons gathered outside the court premises and demonstrated peacefully calling for General Ratwatte's release. His wife, brothers and sisters were present in Court with security personnel.

When the two suspects Lohan Ratwatte and Chanuka Ratwatte were produced for the identification parade conducted by the Magistrate, the witnesses in the case failed to identify them. There are 37 suspects in this case.

On the application of Kolitha Dharmawardene, Attorney-at-Law, who represented the interests of the deceased parties, the Magistrate ordered the prison officers to submit on the next date, medical reports on the health conditions and reports as to whether these three suspects enjoy any special privileges while in prison custody which is not provided to other suspects in this case.

The Magistrate postponed the case for March 18 and remanded the suspects until that date.

Attorneys-at-Law Kolitha Dharmawardene and Upul Jayasuriya appeared for the deceased parties while Wijaya Wickremaratne, PC, appeared for General Ratwatte. Attorneys-at-Law Tirantha Walaliyadda,Senaka Bandara, Lalith Dissanayake, Hirantha Herath, M.P. Jayasinghe, Ashley Herath and Rukshan Lenora appeared for all the accused. 

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Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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