Legal records disappear

Authorities baffled :

Kapila SOMARATNE- Panadura group correspondent

Records of certain criminal and traffic cases pending trial before the Panadura Magistrate's Court are allegedly missing from the record room, baffling the legal authorities.

Panadura Additional District Judge and Magistrate R S A Dissanayake summoned the Criminal Investigations officials to investigate into the modus operandi continued at the record room in the past. The first case record was stolen in 2007.

An accused in the relevant case in a statement to the magistrate had said that he had given Rs 70,000 to an employee of the record room to hide his case record.

CID officials arrested a female employee of the court record room and kept her in remand custody and produced her before court.

The CID forwarding a final report informed court that there was no direct evidence against her. Panadura District Judge Wasantha Jinadasa granted her personal bail on Rs 250,000 and released her.

The judge said the court is not satisfied with the investigations conducted by the CID into the complaint of the magistrate who unearthened the loss of criminal and traffic cases from the record room of the Magistrate's Court.