CID shows strange treatment to lawyer who helped murder Sanjeewa...

The Criminal Investigation Department recently informed the Colombo Magistrate's Court that it will no longer investigate Tamara Abeyratne, a lawyer from Kadawatha who was arrested and detained for aiding and abetting Ishara Sewwandi in the murder of Sanjeewa in Ganemulla, under the Terrorism Act, and that it is investigating her for property generated by crime.

Here, Magistrate Asanka Bodaragama has asked the Criminal Investigation Department how the allegations presented to the court on three previous occasions that the lawyer who helped in the murder of Sanjeewa in Ganemulla by using fake identity cards and that 240 million rupees were deposited in eight bank accounts maintained by this lawyer changed overnight.

 Emphasizing that the law should not be seen as mere suspects but as human beings, the Magistrate has ordered the Criminal Investigation Department to immediately submit a full report on the suspect to the court under Section 120 of the Criminal Procedure Code, stating that decisions cannot be taken on the basis of verbal promises made by the CID to investigate the suspect under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Attorney-at-Law Tamara Kumari Abeyratne, who is currently being interrogated by the Criminal Investigation Department, had previously been reported to the court as having close links with many organized criminals and drug traffickers.

The Investigation Department had further reported to the court that police investigations had revealed that she had gone to Madagascar with two other lawyers to represent organized criminals Salidu Malshitha Gunaratne alias Panadura Kudu Salidu and Harak Kata, who were arrested by the Madagascar Police in 2023.

 At the same time, investigations revealed that this lawyer had provided Ishara Sewwandi with a lawyer's ID card, lawyer's coat and a book of case law to enter the court premises in order to kill Sanjeewa in Ganemulla Court, as well as having had her signature added to the lawyer's ID card, and that the suspect lawyer had also provided the shooter and Ishara Sewwandi with stickers used by lawyers when traveling in the vehicle.