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| Friday, 30 January 2004 |
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State, Udugampola ordered to pay Rs. 4 m compensation by Wasantha Ramanayake The Supreme Court yesterday awarded rupees four million as cost and compensation to five army personnel involved in the Athurugiriya Millennium City Safe House raid. The Court held that the respondent police officers had illegally arrested, detained and subjected the victims to inhuman and degrading treatment and treated them differently. The Bench comprised Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva PC, and Justices Dr. (Mrs.) Shirani Bandaranayake and P. Edussuriya. The court considering the submissions made by the counsel for the petitioners ordered the State to pay Rs. 750,000 to each of the five petitioners which amounted to Rs. 3,750,000. The first respondent Kulasiri Udugampola was ordered to personally pay Rs. 250,000 to the five petitioners. The submissions made by the petitioners' counsel, which was considered for the court order was that as a result of the conduct of the first respondent SP Udugampola and his subordinates several intelligence operators had already been killed. Continuing submissions counsel stated: "Covert operations that were being conducted by the petitioners were exposed and their lives and those of their families were exposed to the greatest risk causing the death of many intelligence operatives resulting in irreparable damage to national security. This was due to the conduct of the first respondent; therefore, he should be personally held responsible for what had taken place." Five Army personnel have cited SP Kandy K. Udugampola, SI R.A.C. Dharmaratna, HQI Kandy, M.A.E. Mahendra SSP Kandy, Ashoka Ratnaweera IP Katugastota, M.M.B.J. Mohottigedera, Inspector General of Police and the Attorney General as the respondents. The five petitioners stated that they were formally assigned to the Directorate of Military Intelligence and had returned to the Army Safe House at Millennium City, Athurugiriya from Batticaloa, consequent to the Ceasefire Agreement signed between the Military Forces and the LTTE in February 2002. Thereafter, they had been directed to return all arms and ammunition explosives the certain army camps. They were in the process of returning the weapons when the team of Police officers led by the first respondent had illegally arrested them and had unlawfully detained them in various places under sub human condition and subjected them to torture. The petitioners stated that their fundamental rights had been violated by the respondents. They sought for a declaration that their fundamental rights had been violated by respondents and for compensation. S.L. Gunsekera with Manohara de Silva, Pasan Gunasena and Dilshan Jayasooriya appeared for the petitioners. Shibly Aziz PC with Faizer Musthapha appeared for the first respondent. Kolitha Dharmawardane appeared for the second and third respondents. Upul Jayasuriya appeared for the fourth and fifth respondents. Senior State Counsel Shavindra Seneviratne and State Counsel Viveka Siriwardane de Silva appeared for the sixth and seventh respondents. |
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