At the conclusion of the hearing of evidence on the post-mortem inquiry held before the Colombo Chief Magistrate Court on the deaths of former Parliamentarian and Presidential adviser on Trade Union Affairs Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra and four others, the court ruled that the deaths were due to shock due to multiple gunshot injuries received to the victims’ bodies.

At the commencement of  the hearing of the evidence, Counsel Ajith Pathirana appearing with Gamini Alwis Bandara Ekanayake and Madura Welgama submitted that the evidence led on Thursday by the CID were irrelevant to the post-mortem inquiry and not in conformity with the procedure of a post-mortem inquiry.
 
He said there are Supreme Court rulings as to how a post-mortem inquiry should be conducted and cited case law reports to buttress his argument. He said the vital things in a post-mortem inquiry is to lead evidence on what, how, where, and who the victim is and all other things are incoherent to the case.
 
Accordingly the CID was ordered to lead evidence on that direction and ASP Shani Abeysekera of the CID led the evidence of a bystander at the scene and a resident of the area.
 
The witness Mervin Fernando giving evidence stated that on October 8 around 3.30pm while he was standing by a shop opposite Himbutana Lane where the incident took place, three vehicles of Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra came from the direction of Himbutana. Mr. Premachandra was seated on the front seat next to the driver in the red coloured vehicle. The other two vehicles were behind it.
 
Duminda Silva’s convoy of vehicles too reached the place from the direction of the Angoda Junction. It stopped blocking Bharatha’s vehicles. He said Premachandra got down from his vehicle and four others who were in Premachandra’s vehicle also got down. He said he saw Duminda Silva getting down from his vehicle and going towards Bharatha Lakshman. There was an exchange of words between Bharatha and Duminda which was inaudible to the witness.
 
Following the exchange of words Duminda gave a blow to Bharatha and kicked him. Several others too assaulted Bharatha who fell down. Those who came with Bharatha in the vehicle helped him to get up and took Bharatha behind the vehicle in which Bharatha came.
 
He said Bharatha did not carry any weapon. Those who came there with Duminda carried weapons. He said he saw about four weapons in the hands of those persons with Duminda. He said Duminda carried a pistol. The witness said he did not know who those persons were and cannot identify them.
 
He said those who carried weapons shot in the air. He said he saw Bharatha limping as he received a gunshot injury on his leg. The witness said Bharatha was helped by three persons to go towards Himbutana. Later he saw them running towards Himbutana.
 
In the meantime some others took away Duminda Silva to the back of Duminda’s vehicle. He said he also saw the bodyguard of Bharatha had been shot at in his eye.
 
The witness said he made a statement to the CID on October 09.
 
Somaratnage Tharindu Asanka, the telephone operator of Duminda Silva giving evidence stated that he was with Duminda Silva on the day of the incident. He said around 3.30pm he travelled with the convoy of 20 vehicles He said he was in the vehicle behind Duminda Silva’s one. He was with Galaboda and Dematagoda Chaminda on either side and that they carried weapons. Those weapons were taken from a vehicle that was in the convoy by Dematagoda Chaminda on his way to Walpola from “Tamilnadu”. The witness said he saw both of them carrying weapons when they were at Tamilnadu.
 
Opposite the Sirimavio Bansdaranayake Library at Walpola Duminda’s vehicle blocked Bharatha’s vehicle. He said he did not see any weapons in the hands of Duminda.  He said Duminda and Bharatha got down from their vehicles. Galaboda and Chaminda went with Duminda to Bharatha’s.
 
He said he did not hear what they said or saw them shooting however he saw Galaboda shooting a person twice who was lying near a lamp post.
 
The witness said he did not see who shot Duminda but saw Bharatha had sustained gunshot injuries while running towards Himbutana and Bharatha falling down. The other three persons who helped Bharatha to get up were also shot. He said there was a shoot-out and he could not say who shot whom.
 
Further inquiries have been postponed for October 24. (T.Farook Thajudeen)