A different kind of rape

The wrongful arrest and detention of a 17-year-old student and 31-year-old father of one over the rape and murder of five-year-old Seya:

by Ranil Wijayapala

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Three weeks ago, on September 12, when Seya Sadewmi, the five-year- old girl from Kotadeniyawa went missing from her home, there was a sense of urgency among the public to know the fate of the child. Media personnel, covering Seya’s story, were on the prowl: hunting for information to relay to their audiences.

Eagerness for information and the demand for justice ran so high, as Seya’s body was found near a stream closer to her home, a day after she went missing. Patience ran thin and people pointed fingers at Seya’s father for her death and finally, her parents were deprived of the opportunity to pay their last respects to their little girl.

The media went wild and rumours took wing and not even the personal lives of Seya’s family members were spared. While the police was on the hunt so were journalists. Details of the family and suspects were splashed across the media.

The tense situation and public pressure were taken as an open warrant by the Police to make an arrest, with or without any substantial facts, in a bid to dilute the pressure from the public and the hierarchy.

It was a 17-year-old student and a 33-year-old father of one child who police identified as suspects in their haste for justice. Having arrested them on suspicion on September 16, it was only on October 1, days after the real perpetrator of Seya’s murderer making a confession, that the Court released the 17-year- old student and the other suspect.

Their names were legally cleared by the CID following a DNA test.

Hasty justice

But the damage has already been done and who is going to take the responsibility and compensate them for this situation is the biggest question before society now.

Soon after their release from remand prison, the victims said that they were emotioally trauamatized by the media.

Questions are being raised as to how and why they were arrested and the manner in which the arrests were made and interrogated by Police urging them to make a confession for something they had not committed.

“Police came to our house on September 16 around 9 am and questioned me as to why I was keeping a photograph of Seya in my facebook account after taking me to a room. But they did not understand that it was only a photograph that was circulated and shared on facebook after Seya’s murder”, he told the media after his release from remand prison.

Then he was taken to the Police station. While his mother was weeping the police told her that the youth had pornographic pictures on his laptop. The media then reported that he was consuming cannabis. It was the media that cast these aspersions which has cost him his reputation, “his mother said.

The way he was treated at the Police station was also questionable and akin to gross violation of his human rights as he was stripped naked, assaulted and threatened to say that he had committed the murder of Seya.

“I was asked to kneel down and was assaulted and threatened to acknowledge a crime which I had not committed. They questioned me on the way I committed the crime, but not whether I had committed the crime”, the 17-year-old student said. He says that he was undressed and photographs were taken when he was questioned by the Police. Then he was taken to the CID for further questioning and there also he had been slapped and assaulted.

Even for his mother who brought him up without his father earning a living after giving tuition to children, the scar on her son and also on her is indelible.

She was emotional after the release of her son and said that people looked at her as if she was a bad woman.

“We were uncertain even about our lives as people were taking the law into their hands”, she added.

The other person, a father of one child who was arrested in the wee hours of September 16 prior to the arrest of the 17 year old student also claimed that his and his close relatives’ lives were at a risk when he was taken into custody by the Police.

“This arrest created a huge blow on my life and my family specially my three-year-old child. The Police put us in an embarrassing situation and my family members lives were at risk after my arrest”, he told the media after his release.

He had been taken into custody in the early hours of September 16 after being called out of his house and then bundled into a Police jeep and taken to a room in an unknown place after covering his head with a bed sheet.

According to him, the Police had stripped him naked and assaulted him and threatened him to make a confession for a crime that he did not commit.

Human Rights lawyer Lakshan Dias told the Sunday Observer that the mother of the 17-year-old student had given his consent to file a Fundamental Rights case on the conduct of the Police regarding the arrest of the student and also about the way he was questioned.

He says that the arrests of both persons had been made without adhering to proper methods though the Police had the right to make any arrest based on trustworthy information they received regarding the killing.

“The way the Police had acted in this case is unacceptable and they cannot assault any suspect while in custody. The Police cannot strip any suspect when questioning them.

It is only a doctor who can strip them for medical investigation. Therefore, they have been subjected to human rights violations whilst in Police custody”, he said.

Petition

He also said when an underage child is arrested the Police should give notice to parents about the arrest.

“If the Police are held responsible for violation of human rights they can be subjected to not less than seven years and not exceeding 10 years imprisonment and a fine above Rs.50,000”, he added.

Joseph Stalin, President of the Ceylon Teachers Union filed a petition at the Human Rights Commission with regard to the arrest of the 17-year-old student over Seya Sadewmi’s murder, filed a petition before the Human Rights Commission challenging the conduct of the Police over the arrest of the student and also the way he was treated while in police custody.

“We condemn the way the student was arrested and the way he was remanded. He was kept under Police detention for three days without producing him before a magistrate”, he said.

“He was humiliated with his name being given to the media by the Police”, he added.

“The media reported what the Police revealed to the media and the media cannot be blamed,’ he said. Seya Sadewmi’s incident raised concern on media ethics as it created problems for Seya’s family.