Evidence links her to abduction:

Hirunika before Magistrate on Jan 12

By Rukshana Rizwie

(Picture Wimal Karunatilleke)

UNF MP Hirunika Premachandra was arrested yesterday morning for her alleged involvement in aiding and abetting the abduction of Amila Priyankara. She was produced before the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s court, where she was granted bail.

The Colombo Crime Division arrested the MP at her residence in Havelock Town yesterday morning on the orders of the Attorney General, Yuwanjana Wijayathilake.

The AG who retired on Friday had ordered her arrest on Thursday evening after reviewing conclusive evidence of her alleged complicity in the abduction of the 34-year-old man.

The AG’s Department had taken into consideration the phone call records, video footage of Premachandra’s press briefing and the evidence given by an 11-year-old girl, the daughter of one of her supporters who confirmed that she had seen the MP before and after the abduction on December 21.

Premachandra initially told the media that she was merely trying to settle a domestic dispute, where the wife of one her supporters was having an affair with the 34-year-old man who worked at a drapery store in Dematagoda.

During the court proceedings, the MP’s Counsel told Court that the supporter had lodged a police complaint that his wife was being kept against her wishes. However, the failure of the police to act on the complaint had prompted the supporter to seek the MP’s advice and intervention.

The MP, however, retracted that she had no knowledge of the abduction and the perpetrators should be brought to book.

Premachandra was released on two sureties of Rs. 100,000 each by the Additional Magistrate Mohammed Mihar. She was ordered to appear before the Magistrate’s Court on January 12.