Appeal Court affirms conviction, death sentence on two accused

by Wasantha Ramanayake

The Court of Appeal affirmed the conviction and death sentence imposed on two accused for the murder of five persons including a disabled person and a ten year old girl in Kotugoda, Negombo on September 3, 1987.

Accordingly the conviction and the death sentence imposed on the accused-appellants T.A. Upali Sarathchandra and T.H. Gamini Sarathchandra for murdering five persons Somapala, Nandawathie, their daughter Nadeeka Shiromi, a disabled person Anil Jayasinghe and his wife Chandra were affirmed.

Justice Jagath Balapatabendi delivering the judgment with the agreement of Justice S.I. Imam observed that having considered all grounds he could not find any reason to set aside the conviction.

Justice Balapatabendi observed that the disabled person Anil and his wife Chandra were running a boutique and were living at the residence of Somapala. Anil was having a difficulty in walking. The accused-appellant were brothers who were living close to the deceased and the first accused was one of their uncles who died before the commencement of the trial.

Justice Balapatabendi observed that Nadeera Somananda (24 years at the time of giving evidence and 12 years old at the time of the incident) stated that the first respondent had shot his farther and mother. The first accused was armed with a pistol, the second with a manna knife and the third with a gun.

Having entered the house after both his parents were shot by the first accused, the second accused had cut both of them to death. He had later dragged out Chandra, the wife of the disabled man Anil from her hiding place and cut her to death. The third accused had shot Anil to death at close range with his gun while he was hiding under a bed.

According to the eyewitness Nadeera, the first accused had asked the second respondent to hack his sister Shiromi to death while she was pleading for her life and the second accused had accordingly done so.

The Judge noted that the second accused-appellant had denied any involvement in the incident and stated that he and his brother(third accused) were in their brick-kiln when the incident occurred.

Justice Balapatabendi noted that the evidence of the eye witness Nadeera had been sufficiently corroborated by medical evidence, evidence of the Police Officer and the aunt of the witness. He also noted that the High Court Judge had commented on the spontaneity of the witness and evaluated the evidence with regard to the spontaneity, consistency, probability etc. "On a perusal of the judgment it is obviously clear that the Learned High Court Judge had evaluated the evidence with reference to the spontaneity, consistency, probability and demeanour of the witness."

Justice Balapatabendi was of the opinion that the evidence given by eye witness Nadeera was trustworthy and credible. Citing judgments of several cases to the effect that a single solitary witness could be acted upon by a Court of Law he noted that "it is apparent that the Learned High Court Judge had carefully analyzed, evaluated and weighed the evidence of the eye witness Nadeera Somananda, and was convinced that the eyewitness had given cogent and truthful testimony in Court, also by observing the demeanour and deportment of this witness who was subjected to very long and protracted cross-examination, had arrived at the findings in regard to the credibility and trustworthiness of the testimony of this witness.

In view of those circumstances he had believed the evidence given by the witness without any hesitation or doubt."

He observed that considering the evidence the learned High Court Judge had come to the correct conclusion that the prosecution had proved the case against the both accused-appellants beyond reasonable doubt and the evidence given by the second accused-appellants had failed to raise any reasonable doubt or suspicion on the prosecution case and no reliance could be placed upon the evidence of the second accused-appellant.

President's Counsel Ranjith Abeysuriya with Ms. Thanuja Rodrigo appeared for the first accused-appellant.

Dr. Ranjit Fernando with Ms. H. Kularatne appeared for the second accused-appellant.