Military Intelligence Coddles Remanded Murder Suspects

• Lasantha murder suspect promoted, paid salary, loans, while in remand
• Military Intelligence colonels accompany suspect families to supreme court hearings
• Flurry of lawsuits, psychological warfare, paralyzes prosecutors
• CID treading on eggshells against military intelligence juggernaut

by Vimukthi Yapa

Lasantha Wickrematunge and Prageeth Eknaligoda

Early 2010 marked the first real breakthrough from the investigation into the murder of The Sunday Leader founding Editor Lasantha Wickrematunge. After taking on the case in early December 2009, CID technicians had quickly traced five mobile telephones that had apparently followed Wickrematunge from his home on Kandewatte Terrace in Nugegoda, to Battaramulla, and then all the way to the spot where he was brutally attacked and killed on January 8, 2009.

In studying the phone calls of these five devices, the CID discovered further corroborating evidence. The five phones only appeared to have been in touch with each other, and not have called anyone else. This is a usage pattern known in intelligence circles as a ‘closed cell’, and prevents the identification of conspirators outside of the cell.

Furthermore, an eye witness outside Wickrematunge’s house, a shopkeeper, stated that he saw a heavyset man dressed in all black, wearing a black full-face helmet on a black motorcycle, raise a small black mobile phone to his ear as Wickrematunge left his house and utter the words: “onna pitathuna”, or “he is leaving”, before hanging up.

The then CID team corroborated the timing of the shopkeeper’s report with a seven second phone call made by one of the five handphone numbers, and further, identified the physical handphone used by the suspect as a black Nokia 1200, a phone that matched the description by the eye witness.

The hand phones appeared active in Battaramulla during the hour that Lasantha spent with his wife, then Deputy Editor of The Sunday Leader, Sonali Samarasinghe Wickrematunge. They too witnessed a bike with riders matching the description provided by the shopkeeper circling their vehicle menacingly.

The phones were again present at the Nugegoda supermarket, at the precise time that Wickrematunge was meeting his driver to hand over a document – the same driver who was allegedly abducted by senior army spy Premananda Udalagama. Their final activity is reported to be at the exact spot where Lasantha was attacked, again, at the same time. According to telephone records, these five SIM cards were never used until the day of Wickrematunge’s murder, and were not used thereafter.

With this lead in hand, the CID proceeded to attempt to identify the registrants of these five numbers. If the registrants could lead to the users of the phones on the morning of January 8, 2009, the identity of Wickrematunge’s killers could be revealed.

According to records retrieved from Dialog Lanka, the telecommunication provider through which the numbers were registered, they were all owned by the same person: One Pitchai Jesudasan from Nuwara Eliya. His National Identity Card, number 711713050V, was presented for photocopying for all five SIM cards. The SIM cards were purchased on three separate days, November 12 and 13, 2008 and December 1, 2008.

Having identified Jesudasan, the CID proceeded to identify and monitor his movements. They discovered that he was an unmarried vehicle mechanic who ran a small garage on a government estate. His family appeared to lead a simple life and they discovered no clues as to how he would be associated with Wickrematunge’s murder. The detectives then proceeded to record a statement from Jesudasan, on January 15, 2010. They asked him about Wickrematunge. He claimed to never have heard of the man. They asked him where he was on the specific dates the SIM cards were purchased. He could not remember his exact whereabouts, but provided evidence that he was definitely in Nuwara Eliya and nowhere near Colombo. They asked him what phone numbers he had ever used or purchased. He provided some copies of registration cards for Tigo numbers he had used.

Finally, the detectives asked Jesudasan point blank if he had purchased the five SIM cards, or knew who could have purchased the SIM cards using his National Identity Card. Jesudasan finally put two and two together and volunteered a breakthrough. He said that his NIC was stolen from him in June 2008, and provided both corroborating evidence and the names of witnesses who would later verify his account.

According to Jesudasan, his national identity card was stolen from him by one Kanegedera Piyawansa, an army spy attached to a secret military intelligence outpost in Maradana. That statement, signed and filed by the CID in the B-file of Wickrematunge’s murder investigation on January 15, 2010, brought their investigation to a screeching halt.

Very little is clear about what came next. It is known that most investigative operations by the CID on the case ceased soon thereafter, but no one knows who, if anyone, gave the order. The case was transferred from the CID to the TID three weeks later, with no reason cited or recorded. Yet another three weeks passed before any action was taken. Jesudasan was not contacted again, and no attempt was made to record a statement from Private Piyawansa.

Suddenly, early on the morning of February 26, 2010, Jesudasan’s home was raided at 3 a.m. by TID officers and he was summarily detained and brought to Colombo, held without his statement being recorded for several days. The next day, on February 27, again at around 3 a.m., military police officers handed Piyawansa into TID custody. He too was to remain detained without his statement being recorded for several days.

Piyawansa was not asked any substantive questions about the five SIM cards, beyond being asked if he stole Jesudasan’s identity card, which he denied having done. His questioning was so poorly handled, and the evidence against him so flimsily presented, that Piyawansa was to file a Fundamental Rights petition with the Supreme Court alleging that he was illegally detained.

In his petition, FR/458/2010, a copy of which The Sunday Leader has in its possession, Piyawansa alleges that “his wife Dharshani Deepika Perera is unemployed and his continued detention has gravely prejudiced the welfare of his family, particularly the education of their two daughters.”

This would be a grave predicament indeed for a single income household. Military standing orders clearly stipulate that all financial benefits to a soldier must cease upon their seizure of duties for reason of arrest, remand or detention. With Piyawansa to be in remand for over a year, his family would have lost all access to its sole source of income. But it didn’t.

As a matter of fact, contrary to Piyawansa’s allusions to the Supreme Court, he was well looked after by the military intelligence corps while he was in custody, at the taxpayer’s expense. His salary was not stopped but increased, as he received a promotion from Private to Lance Corporal while still in remand custody at Welikada. Moreover, the Army issued Piyawansa over Rs. 150,000 in loans while he was still in custody.

He was not interdicted or investigated internally by his superiors, as is the common practice in an allegation as serious as murder. It appears that senior officers violated statutes to ensure that the ‘welfare of his family’ was well seen to, at great personal legal risk to themselves. As at present, Piyawansa serves on the personal staff of Director of Military Intelligence, Brigadier Suresh Sallay, as his chauffer.

While both the Army and CID are well known to be aware of the irregularities around the handling of Piyawansa’s finances, both have not taken any action against Piyawansa or his superiors, for fear of judicial backlash since Piyawansa’s fundamental rights petition is still active and ongoing.

At this stage, the CID’s fear of legal ramifications, while well founded, has reached almost comical proportions. The high watermark of their investigations into the killer squads that are alleged to have operated in the military intelligence hierarchy came late last year, when a team of detectives led by SP Shani Abeysekera identified and arrested several army spies for complicity in the abduction and apparent murder of journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda.

However, shortly thereafter, the CID faced a campaign of retaliation unlike any it has ever seen. Expensive lawyers were to appear in the defence of every single suspect arrested, leaving open the question of who footed the bill. Every one of them filed a fundamental rights petition with the Supreme Court. The families of the suspects were accompanied to the courthouse by colonels in military intelligence.

Most stunning of all, posters threatening Senior State Counsel Dilip Peiris, the key prosecutor in the case, were pasted around his home. Homagama police noted that the team that had pasted the posters had acted quickly and were deliberate to avoid being detected by even one of the many CCTV cameras in the area as they made their entry and egress. This marks the first time in the country’s history that psychological intelligence operations have been used against a state prosecutor.

There can be no denying that these actions have had a chilling effect on prosecutors and the CID alike. The CID remains afraid to even record a statement from Piyawansa. On one occasion Piyawansa is said to have appeared at the CID to make a statement, and openly threatened the officers that he would tell the Supreme Court that he was being intimidated into withdrawing his FR petition.

The officers, cowed, offered to allow Piyawansa to leave without making a statement. Piyawansa, however, relented, and agreed to make a brief statement. The power dynamic, however, was clear. The CID has since appeared to refrain from doing anything to ruffle Piyawansa’s feathers for fear of self-sabotaging their inquiry.

Even when the CID was closing in on Warrant Officer Premananda Udalagama, the defence machinery moved swiftly.

First, an inquiry officer was summoned to the office of CID Director, SSP Nagahamulla, where he was confronted by none other than Director of Military Intelligence, Suresh Sallay himself.

An investigator familiar with the conversation revealed to The Sunday Leader that Sallay had asked what evidence the CID had against Udalagama. The inquiry officer had declined to respond, prompting Sallay to warn, in full view of the CID Director, that he was ‘200 per cent certain’ that any attempt to prosecute Udalagama would fail. His threat, while shrugged off by SSP Nagahamulla, did not fall on deaf ears.

CID officers immediately moved to relocate and ensure the personal security of Wickrematunge’s driver, their key witness, refusing to reveal his location even to other senior officers of the CID itself. They got wind of moves inside the Attorney General’s Department to protect Udalagama and accelerated their investigation and moved swiftly to arrest the officer and produce him before the Mount Lavinia magistrate.

Lawyers appeared for Udalagama and told television journalists, in comments that were aired on several stations, that the intelligence officer was a pawn in attempts to tarnish the good names of the military intelligence hierarchy, providing further clues as to who is behind the campaign against the CID.

Newspapers have published full page stories defending Udalagama, while also publishing his photograph, leading his lawyers to immediately complain to the Mount Lavinia magistrate that such publication renders the identification parades null and void. Even former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa is said to have contacted several ranking members of the police and government to plead Udalagama’s case.

The question that remains is whether the coalition of ‘good governance’ will stand by and watch as taxpayers money is used to grind the wheels of justice to a halt and intimidate the country’s premier law enforcement agency, or will they insist that the Army probe and put a stop to these efforts so that the CID detectives can do their job without hindrance.

‘Action on crimes committed’

When contacted by The Sunday Leader, Army spokesman, Brigadier Jayanath Jayaweera said that when a soldier is arrested or detained, action is taken against him based on the crime committed.

He said that if arrested by the police, the soldier is handed over to the military and the military then investigates the crime and takes appropriate action.

The Army spokesman also said that payment of the salary of a soldier arrested over a crime depends on the nature of the crime. However, if the solder is remanded, then the salary is not paid.

The Army spokesman added that there are several loan schemes in place for soldiers.

Asked if soldiers who are arrested are eligible for a loan, the spokesman said that it depends on the crime and outcome of the investigations.

He said that all soldiers can apply for a loan through their respective army regiments. (AW)

Piyawansa’s story to the Supreme Court

The Petitioner states that on or about 27.02.2010 (at around 3.30 a.m.) he was arrested by officers of the TID led by the 5th Respondent who informed the Petitioner that a statement needed to be obtained from him. The Petitioner specifically states that reasons for his arrest were not disclosed to him nor to any member of his family or any relative thereof.

The Petitioner states that on or about 27.02.2010 he was brought to the TID and was questioned. The Petitioner was asked if he knew one Pitchchai Jesudas. As the Petitioner could not recollect such a person, he was shown a photograph of a person said to be Pitchchai Jesudas, whom the Petitioner identified as ‘Das’. Das was a motor mechanic in Nuwara Eliya and the Petitioner knew him. The Petitioner explained to the TID officers that when he was working as a lorry driver, he used to take the lorry for repairs to Das’ s garage at Magastota junction and every now and then they would enjoy drinks together.

The Petitioner states that the TID officers questioned him as to whether he had in his possession Pitchchai Jesudas’ National Identity Card (NIC). The Petitioner vehemently denied he had anything to do with Pitchchai Jesudas’ NIC. TID officers further questioned the Petitioner as to whether he had any involvement with the murder of journalist Lasantha Wickramatunga and whether he had associated General Sarath Fonseka. The Petitioner truthfully answered the said questions in the negative.

The Petitioner states that he learnt that on or about the day of his arrest his house in Nuwara Eliya had been searched by officers of the TID.

The Petitioner states that the said Pitchchai Jesudas too has been arrested and in detention. The Petitioner states that on or about 26.05.2010 he (along with the said Pitchchai Jesudas) was produced in the Colombo Magistrate’s Court and transferred to remand prison.

The Petitioner states that on or about 10.11.2010 he was discharged (along with Pitchchai Jesudas) from the proceedings in the Colombo Magistrate’s Court on the basis that no further legal action would be pursued against the Petitioner.  The Petitioner states that though he was discharged from the proceedings in the said Colombo Magistrate’s Court case, he was not released from detention and instead was added as a suspect to proceedings pending in the Mount Lavinia Magistrate’s Court bearing No. B/92/2009 regarding the murder of journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge.

The Petitioner specifically states that there is no basis to add him as a suspect to the said proceedings in the Mount Lavinia Magistrate’s Court case and as a result the Petitioner has now been in detention for more than one-year, and such long and continuing deprivation of his liberty is in violation of his fundamental rights under Articles 12(1), 13(1) and 13(2) of the Constitution of Sri Lanka.

The Petitioner states that his wife Dharshani Deepika Perera is unemployed and his continued detention has gravely prejudiced the welfare of his family, particularly the education of their two daughters (elder daughter studying at Grade 6 at Madduma Bandara Vidyalaya, Nuwara Eliya and the younger daughter who is now in Grade 1 at Republican Vidyalaya, Nuwara Eliya).