16 October 2023 02:50 pm Views - 2121
Colombo Magistrate Rajidra Jayasooriya allowed the kith and kin of the late leading businessman Dinesh Shafter to bury his remains in their family burial grounds at Jawatte, Colombo 5.
At the onset of the magisterial inquiry before Magistrate Rajindra Jayasuriya, Counsel Anuja Premaratna PC, Counsel Mohan Balendran appearing with Attorney-at-Law Vinoj Ratnayake for the aggrieved family of Shafter filed affidavits from his family members of before court and moved court to allow the family of Dinesh Shafter to cremate the remains.
However the Magistrate, observing that the report of the special panel of doctors appointed to conduct the post mortem inquiry is not yet ready, ordered the body to be buried instead of cremated.
Thereafter the family of late Shafter agreed to bury the body at their family burial grounds at Jawatta Colombo 5.
The CID who conducted investigations did not object and further inquiry was put off for October 31.
Magistrate Rajindra Jayasuriya had earlier ordered the CID to hand over the remains of late businessman Dinesh Schaffter to his family,
Magistrate Jayasuriya had appointed an expert committee, headed by Prof. Asela Mendis, to conduct a post mortem inquiry and to submit a report on Schaffter’s death.
The remains of Schaffter were exhumed on 25 May, 2023, under judicial supervision of the Colombo Magistrate’s Court.
Dinesh Shafter, the Director of Janashakthi Group of Companies was found tied in his car at the General Cemetery in Borella on 15 December, 2022, and died on the following day while receiving treatment at the ICU of the National Hospital in Colombo.
The Magistrate observed that the post mortem inquiry is yet to be complete and the report of the expert panel of Doctors was not yet ready and allowed to bury the body instead of being cremating,
The CID officer who was conducting investigations did not object.
Colombo Additional Magistrate Rajindra Jayasuriya on the last inquiry date had ordered the CID to hand over the remains of late Dinesh Schaffter to his family.
Accordingly, the Additional Magistrate ordered the CID to hand over the body to his family under the supervision of Prof. Clifford Perera and Judicial Medical Officer P.R. Ruwanpura.
Schaffter’s remains were exhumed on 25 May, 2023, under judicial supervision and armed security, on the orders of the Colombo Magistrate’s Court.
The former Director of the Janashakthi Group of Companies was found tied in his car at the General Cemetery, in Borella on 15 December, 2022, and died a day later while receiving treatment at the ICU of the National Hospital in Colombo. (T. Farook Thajudeen)