Operation cover up
RompaNallavan
By Frederica Jansz
The phone call to the Sri Lanka Air Force operations division was made on the
night of Sunday, March 3, 2002.
ASP Rohan Silva, personal security officer to Anuruddha Ratwatte was at one end
of the telephone line. His question was simple.
He asked the officer on duty if a Bell 412 helicopter was ready to fly General
Anuruddha Ratwatte to Teldeniya the next day. The SLAF officer answered that
indeed orders had been received to ready a chopper for flight at 8 a.m. the
next day
He said however, he did not know for whom the helicopter had been booked. Silva
reported back to Ratwatte - reclining at the Merchant's Ward at the Colombo
General Hospital.
Ratwatte then ordered his PSO to phone SLAF Commander Jayalath Weerakkody and
clarify if the chopper booked for the next day was for his use. A second phone
call followed.
Weerakkody reassured Ratwatte that the chopper scheduled for flight the next
morning was to fly him to the Teldeniya magistrate's court.
The chopper ride had been facilitated via the intervention of Mano Wijeyratne,
former UNP member of parliament. Wijeyratne lost his seat in the last general
election.
Wijeyratne had telephoned the UNP hierarchy and made the request on behalf of
Anuruddha Ratwatte. Tilak Marapona was duly informed and the green light given
for a SLAF chopper to carry Anuruddha Ratwatte to and from Colombo to Teldeniya
and back.
Last Monday, March 4, 2002, was a cake-walk for the Ratwattes.
Having plotted and planned for weeks ahead, as to how they would escape
recognition at the identification parade, Lohan and Chanuka Ratwatte lobbied
cousins who possessed similar outward appearances.
Sheran Ratwatte, nephew to Anuruddha Ratwatte and similar in physical
appearance to Chanuka Ratwatte was chosen.
Fourteen other relatives from the Ratwatte clan who resemble Lohan and Chanuka
took part in the identification parade last Monday. They were all asked to
dress in long white sleeved shirts and black pants. The identical attire, in
which both Lohan and Chanuka were also dressed.
Teldeniya Magistrate, Preethi Inoka Ranasinghe took the decision and allowed
the defence to choose persons for the identification parade. The Matale police
and the army had brought persons to be a part of the parade but they were all
left out.
Ranasinghe explained that in all fairness to the accused, she made this
decision. "I could not find fair, handsome men who resemble Lohan and Chanuka
in this village," she said, adding that as a result she asked the Ratwatte
lawyers to find family members with a similar physical appearance to be part of
the identification parade.
Asked if this succeeded in confusing the two witnesses, Ranasinghe replied, "I
don't think so." She reiterated that she had not heard if the witnesses had
received a pay - off by the time the identification parade was held last
Monday.
There are whispers that huge sums of monies had been paid to some of the
witnesses by the time the identification parade was called. Each witness was
allegedly paid two and a half million rupees to pick out the wrong men at the
identification parade.
It defies all comprehension as to how two witnesses who claimed so strongly to
police, family and friends that they definitely saw Lohan and Chanuka at the
scene of the mass murder at Udathalawinna were unable to identify the clean
shaven, well dressed brothers who turned up for the parade. Needless to say,
Lohan Ratwatte is well recognized in the Kandy district. Even next to
look-alike cousins there is no mistaking his features.
It seemed a re-enactment of the Joel Pera murder saga where a deliberately
blotched investigation and suspected pay-off got Lohan off the hook. This time
round, the removal of SP K. Udugampola and the delay in arresting the Ratwattes
have equally helped in preparing the ground work for the defence and cover up.
Malik, the key witness in this case was not called upon to identify the
Ratwatte brothers last Monday. Though present in court Malik took no part in
the identification of the suspects.
Since Malik has identified Lohan and Chanuka Ratwatte by name in his statement
to the CID, he apparently was not required to identify them at the parade. In
the meantime, even as the case evolved, rumour was rampant that Malik too had
received a pay-off and accepted an offer to leave for Italy that night.
The Sunday Leader reliably learns that since last Monday, Malik is now in safe
custody and has not left the country.
Meanwhile, the two witnesses had mistakenly identified Corporal Wijeyratne, who
drove one of the vehicles carrying the killer squad on December 5, 2001, as
having placed grenades in the hands of the dead Muslim boys.
Evidence unearthed thus far has maintained that Lohan Ratwatte placed grenades
in the hands of the victims. Police sleuths confided that days before the
identification parade, a security officer working for Anuruddha Ratwatte who
has a brother employed as a jailor at the Kandy Bogambara prison, had got
Corporal Siriwardena beaten. The soldier was the driver of one vehicle that
chased the van carrying the Muslims youth. Siriwardena was threatened not to
say in court on March 4, 2002, what he had told the CID in his statement. The
police were hoping to make both Wijeyratne and Siriwardene state witnesses on
the statements they had made to the CID.
However, after Wijeyratne was picked out at the identification parade last
Monday he will now remain in custody as a suspect. Angry sleuths say this has
effectively blown apart their attempt to get the drivers to testify against the
perpetrators of the mass murder. The fact that the identification parade was a
cake-walk is now part of the ugly turn of events surrounding the massacre of
ten youth at Udathalawinna on December 5, last year.
Both the police and the Attorney General's department have not batted an eyelid
or attempted to call the bluff of the Ratwatte men who enjoy hospital beds
instead of a prison cell. Anuruddha Ratwatte claims he has high blood pressure
and that his "foot is giving him trouble" which is reason enough for him to be
hosted at the Merchant's Ward at the Colombo General Hospital.
His two sons, Lohan and Chanuka claim they are suffering from 'hypertension'
which is cause for their being hosted in an entire ward of the Bogambara
Prison's hospital. All three men appeared in court last Monday looking fresh
and rested, their smiling faces mocking the justice system in this country and
yes, the entire nation who watched in disbelief, the arrogance and egos of the
Ratwatte men on display. Two air force officers even had the audacity to salute
the murder suspect Anuruddha Ratwatte.
While their women fawned, they strutted, putting to shame the very precincts of
the Teldeniya magistrate's court. It would be interesting to ascertain what
part PA municipal councilors Sena Dissanayake and Sanjiva Hulangamuwa play in
this entire episode. Both men were present at the courthouse on March, 4.
State Counsel, Achala Vengapulli sat mute throughout the entire court
proceedings. Challenged by defence attorneys as to why the man from the AG's
department had nothing to say, it was explained he was "merely an observer." To
observe the circus that unfolded before his eyes that morning must surely have
made Vengapulli squirm if nothing else.
Shaun Wanigasekera, a close confidante and friend of Lohan Ratwatte, was even
heard bragging outside the courthouse, "there is nothing to worry - we have
fixed it perfectly." Wanigasekera in fact has played a significant role in this
entire drama. He willingly drove Lohan and his brother Chanuka from hide-out to
hide-out, going so far as to even allow the brothers to stay at his sister's
residence at Nugegoda.
Not only Wanigasekera, but Muslims too 'helped' the Ratwatte's weave a web of
deceit. While top investigative sleuths looked the other way, two Muslim men
from Madawala aided and abetted to facilitate the heavy bribes being offered by
Anuruddha Ratwatte to the four Muslim boys who remain witnesses to the
horrifying mass murder.
All it cost was two and a half million rupees each. That was the price placed
on the heads of the dead youth. A total of ten million smackers. A million for
each body, is kids play for the likes of Anuruddha, Lohan and Chanuka Ratwatte.
Meanwhile, the CID informed Anuruddha Ratwatte and his other son Mahen that the
latter would be called for questioning on Thursday, March 7, 2002 on the basis
that he had harboured his two brothers who figure as key suspects in this case.
Following the surrender of Lohan and Chanuka Ratwatte to the CID two weeks ago,
Mahen confessed that the two boys had been at his residence at Madiwela, Kotte
from the day they were flown by helicopter from Kandy to Colombo. Curiously,
Mahen's home at Kotte was at no point searched by the CID looking for Lohan and
Chanuka thus allowing the Ratwatte brothers to lie about their real hideouts.
The CID by Tuesday last week spread the word that following an official
statement recorded from Mahen Ratwatte, the cops would move for his arrest for
aiding and abetting to hide the suspects.
Lionel Goonetilleke, director, CID was thereafter lobbied by Anuruddha
Ratwatte. Begging Goonetilleke not to arrest Mahen, Anuruddha pleaded with the
CID top cop. Goonetilleke finally agreed asserting that Mahen would instead be
served notice and would have to appear at CID headquarters whenever he is
requested to do so. Mahen curiously in his statement to the CID last Thursday
backtracked on his earlier claim and said he had not provided shelter for his
fugitive brothers.
A top sleuth at the CID confided to The Sunday Leader, that Mahen had boasted
to cops when Lohan and Chanuka surrendered that both brothers since December 8,
last year had been at his home at Madiwela, Kotte. Asked what they did during
that time, Mahen had said they merely watched home videos and staked a hideout.
Meanwhile, a former security officer for Anuruddha Ratwatte confided that from
the time Lohan and Chanuka Ratwatte were flown to Colombo by chopper together
with their families after the general election on December 5, 2001, they were
all housed at Anuruddha Ratwatte's official residence in Colombo at Stanmore
Crescent. He said that in fact the day Anuruddha Ratwatte called a press
conference to profess his two sons innocence in the Udathalawinna massacre, he
had claimed they were out of Colombo at the time on holiday with friends.
Anuruddha just uttered one more lie.
Lohan, Chanuka and Mahen together with their wives and children at that very
moment were upstairs listening to their father plead their innocence in the
mass murders, he said. In effect it was not Mahen who first harboured the
suspects, if he ever did so, but General Anuruddha Ratwatte.
Later, Anuruddha summoned a Justice of the Peace, M. D. Gunasekera, and ordered
him to attest an affidavit on behalf of Lohan and Chanuka. The affidavit was
required to file a motion in the supreme court claiming the latter's
fundamental rights were being violated by the CID in their quest to seek the
arrest of the two brothers. The application was subsequently rejected by
courts.
The JP however in his statement to the CID confessed that Anuruddha had called
out to Lohan and Chanuka who were by then fugitives to come into the room and
place their signatures to the affidavit before the JP. Both boys had come in.
The JP however says he could not for sure ascertain if the two young men before
him were indeed Lohan and Chanuka Ratwatte and he dared not ask for
identification. He instead, meekly acquiesced and sealed the affidavit. And now
it seems, justice itself is being sealed as the Ratwattes with the help of the
state machinery have set in motion a chain of events for their great escape.