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| Sunday, 28 December 2003 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Is the reserve police competent? by JAYAMPATHY JAYASINGHE The timely intervention by the police hierarchy helped to douse communal tension that was spreading across the Puttalam district last week due to the reckless action of a Reserve Police Constable who opened fire with a T-56 automatic rifle at a moving lorry, injuring a woman passenger who sustained serious injuries. The injured person was rushed to the Ragama hospital from where she was later transferred to the National Hospital Colombo. The patient is still in a critical condition, police said. Meanwhile the incident sparked off a riot in Puttalam town when several mobs set fire to a pile of tyres on the highway obstructing the flow of traffic. Realising the deteriorating law and order situation in the area, IGP, Indra de Silva promptly dispatched a special police team from Colombo headed by Director Colombo Crime Division, SSP Sarath Lugoda to investigate the incident. The police team after an exhausting investigation arrested the Reserve Police Constable who allegedly opened fire, along with two other Home Guards in connection with the incident. The two suspects were produced before the Puttalam Magistrate last week who remanded them till investigations are completed. The incident raises the question as to whether policemen armed with T-56 automatic rifles and other weapons are competent enough to maintain law and order in public places. How competent are they in protecting the public from criminal elements? Are they conversant in all aspects of criminal law apart from learning to handle firearms at the Police Training School. According to sources many policemen recruited during the past two decades on an adhoc basis to serve in the war torn areas of North and East are not fit to be deployed elsewhere owing to inadequate training. If this was the case, how safe is it to deploy them with sophisticated weapons other than in operational areas? This issue was raised by former IGP, Ana Seneviratne at a forum held at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute recently presided over by the Chairman of the National Police Commission, Ranjit Abeysuriya. He emphasised that it was not safe to deploy half baked policemen without adequate training due to their poor knowledge of law and investigating abilities. This was a case in point of what happened in Puttalam where a Reserve Police Constable on traffic duty chased a lorry and opened fire because the lorry driver had been defiant and rude to him. The core of the issue is whether the shooting is mala-fide and whether the Constable acted in the right of Private Defence. Under section 90 of the Penal Code every person has the right, subject to the restrictions contained in section 92, to defend firstly, his own body, and the body of any other person against any offence affecting the human body. Secondly- the property, whether movable or immovable of himself or of any other person, against any act which is an offence falling under the definition of theft, robbery, mischief, or criminal trespass or which is an attempt to commit theft, robbery, mischief or criminal trespass. However Section 92 of the Penal Code states (1) that there is no right of private defence against an act which does not reasonably cause the apprehension of death or of grievous hurt, if done or attempted to be done by a public servant acting in good faith under colour of his office, though that act may not be strictly justifiable by law. (2) There is no right of private defence against an act which does not reasonably cause the apprehension of death or of grievous hurt, if done or attempted to be done by the direction of a public servant acting in good faith under colour of his office, though that direction may not be strictly justifiable by law. (3) There is no right of private defence in cases in which there is time to have recourse to the protection of the public authorities. (4) The right of private defence in no case extends to the inflicting of more harm than it is necessary for the purpose of defence. The issue to be probed is whether there was an imminent danger to the life of the Reserve Police Constable who opened fire at a moving vehicle. It all happened when the policeman found a lorry being parked in a street corner obstructing the flow of traffic. He ordered the driver to move it elsewhere, but found the same lorry being parked elsewhere in a similar manner obstructing traffic. The Policeman then approached the driver and demanded his driving licence. The driver at this stage had argued with the policeman and wanted to know why he wants his licence. Well what happened thereafter is anybody's guess due to absence of independent evidence. In the meantime the driver fled leaving the policeman behind who demanded his driving licence. The policeman's bullet which had entered through the rear of the lorry had struck the drivers sister-in-law who was seated along with another person in the front seat, Police said. |
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