Archives

Court of Appeal sets aside conviction and 10-year RI sentence

The Court of Appeal set aside the conviction and a 10-year sentence of RI imposed on an accused under the Offensive Weapons Act on grounds of material discrepancies and infirm evidence at the trial which cast doubts over the proper and secure custody of the production.

The Bench comprised Justices Raja Fernando and G.W. Edirisuriya.

Indictment had been filed by the Attorney General against Weerakoon Mudiyanselage Kumarasinghe Banda alleging that that he did on July 8, 1995 at a village called Watakoluvewa, in the Dambulla District have in his possession an offensive weapon in the nature of a hand bomb, thereby committing an offence punishable under the Offensive Weapons Act.

At the Trial before the High Court of Kandy, the prosecution led the evidence of the Officer-In-Charge Mawanella Police Station, Inspector Liyanage Samansiri Sigera who testified that on a tip-off received he raided a Vadiya situated in the jungles of Dambulla around 3 a.m. in the company of a posse of policemen. On approaching this desolate hut the occupants inside who were two males and one female surrendered and were taken into custody.

They had in their possession a firearm and the accused had an object which appeared to be a J.R. type hand bomb.

Appealing against the conviction and sentence Dr. Ranjith Fernando on behalf of the accused submitted to court that according to the oral and documentary evidence of the prosecution the serial numbers on the alleged offensive weapon recorded at the time of arrest in the jungle differed materially and substantially from the serial Numbers recorded at the police station when the productions were handed over to the reserve for safe-keeping.

Further O.I.C. Sigera had admitted that they had not taken steps to seal the production and the discrepancy was further compounded by the Government Analyst Report which described the object as not being a J.R. type hand bomb and the serial number differed even further from the already different numbers recorded in the jungle at the time of arrest and thereafter at the Police station.

Therefore, the production at three different stages carried three different serial numbers recorded by three different persons and remained in the unsealed custody of the Mawanella police station for 4 months prior to it being sent to the Government Analyst.

Counsel submitted that a conviction for possession of an Offensive Weapon cannot be maintained in law in the teeth of this infirm evidence of purported, safe, proper and secure custody which was a "sine-qua-non" to establish a charge of this nature. An Acquittal was prayed for on behalf of the Accused.

Justice Raja Fernando (with Justice Edirisuriya agreeing) in their order stated inter alia that having perused the evidence led at the trial before the High Court it is apparent that there were material discrepancies and infirmity relating to the 'chain' of proper and safe custody of production which was of paramount importance in a case of this nature.

The submission of defence counsel was accepted and the court proceeded to set aside the conviction and sentence of 10 years R.I. imposed on the Accused Appellant by the High Court of Kandy and ordered that the Accused Appellant be acquitted and set free. Dr. Ranjith Fernando with Ms. Sandamali Munasignhe and Ms. Ranmalee Jayawardena appeared for the Accused Appellant.

Senior State Counsel Ayesha Jinasena appeared for the Attorney General.

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager