Former Director of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Shani Abeysekera has revealed details concerning his arrest in July 2020 and his involvement in the inquiry against Dr. Shafi Shihabdeen of the Kurunegala Hospital.
Addressing the media today, Shani Abeysekera revealed that there were no cases against him in Sri Lanka’s courts at present and that the authorities had failed to file a case against him during his arrest.
“The authorities couldn’t even produce a charge sheet against me. I was imprisoned for 10 months and 18 days and provided meals under the expenditure of the then government,” he said.
Shani Abeysekera was arrested in July 2020 and was charged under the Offensive Weapons Act and Explosives Devices Act related to the case of the murder of the late businessman Mohamed Shyam.
On the inquiry against Dr. Shafi Shihabdeen of the Kurunegala Hospital, Shani Abeysekera said the CID had been entrusted with conducting an inquiry after allegations against the doctor had been published in the Divaina Newspaper on 24 May 2019.
He said the then IGP C. D. Wickremeratne had questioned how the information had reached a local newspaper and had instructed him to investigate how the newspaper had access to such information.
“First, as it was necessary to investigate the news reporter, we had informed the journalist to report to the CID on 26 May. However, on 25 May, the IGP questioned me as to how Dr. Shafi was arrested when it was the CID that was entrusted with the inquiry,” he said.
According to Abeysekera, the IGP had then instructed the CID to launch an inquiry into the entire issue involving Dr. Shafi, and not just the newspaper report.
“Upon requesting the IGP to amend the fax with these instructions accordingly, Dr. Shafi who was arrested by the Police was taken into CID custody and investigations were launched,” he said.
Stating that at the time, the CID team was only aware of allegations regarding sterilization and that they were unaware of the medical definitions, he said they had deemed information insufficient to conduct the inquiry.
Abeysekera said, therefore, steps were taken to obtain an order from the Kurunegala Magistrate’s Court to receive the services of a specialist team to provide advice and recommendations on the matter.
“Based on the court order, a specialist team was appointed consisting of the Chief Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) Anil Tennakoon, and Specialists Ruwan Pathirane and Ms. Karunasekera. The CID team conducting the inquiry had met the specialists to be briefed on the term sterilization and other details related to the allegations,” he said.
Shani Abeysekera added that the inquiry had been conducted against Dr. Shafi based on these recommendations and briefings provided by the specialist team, including on menstruation, fertile period, and sterilization of women.
In May 2019, Dr. Shafi Sihabdeen was sent on compulsory leave and arrested after being accused of performing illegal sterilization operations at the Kurunegala Teaching Hospital.
Dr. Shafi was also accused of having amassed wealth illegally and maintaining links with a terrorist organization but was later released from the case with the Attorney General’s Department dropping all charges against him. (Newswire)
