CID probes users of phone extensions at Presidential Secretariat on the day Thajudeen found dead

By Shehan Chamika Silva

The prosecution today told court a special investigation is underway to identify the users of five phone extensions at Presidential Secretariat, from which Narahenpita OIC Damien Perera had allegedly received phone calls on the day Thajudeen was found dead.

Earlier, the CID told court that Narahenpita OIC had received phone calls from five numbers registered with Presidential Secretariat on the day Wasim Thajudeen was found dead near Shalika Grounds in Narahenpita.

Appearing on behalf of the Attorney General, Additional Solicitor General Dilan Rathnayake told court that 19 femur bone pieces and seven bone pieces of chest area recovered at SAITM  over missing body parts of Wasim Thajudeen, were sent to the 'Genetech' to conduct a DNA test using DNAs of Thajudeen's mother.

Earlier, the CID and a team of experts searched the SAITM Laboratory based on the information revealed during the investigation that the former JMO Ananda Samaraseka had dispatched few body parts of late Wasim Thajudeen to the SAITM. 

The prosecution said that the suspects -- former SDIG Anura Senanayake and former Narahenpita Crimes OIC Sumith Perera -- had been charged under Sections 113 (Conspiracy) and 32 (Liability for act done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Penal Code, and that according to the provision in Section 13 of the Bail Act, a person who had been charged with an offence punishable with death or with life imprisonment, shall not be released on bail except by a judge of the High Court.

Considering that the suspects had already filed revision bail applications in the High Court, the magistrate re-remanded the suspects till November 16.

They had been arrested by the CID and charged under Sections 113 (Conspiracy) and 32 (Liability for act done by several persons in furtherance of a common intention) of the Penal Code in connection with the murder of ruggerite Wasim Thajudeen.

The former SDIG and the former Crimes OIC have also been charged with causing the disappearance of evidence, fabricating false evidence, using it to shield the offender and conspiring under Clauses of 189,198 and 296 of the Penal Code.