Hearing of the case filed by the Attorney General against former Chief Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) of Colombo Ananda Samarasekara for allegedly concealing evidence in the Wasim Thajudeen murder case was postponed until February 24.
When the case was taken up before the Colombo High Court Judge Manjula Thilakaratne today (31), the charge sheet against the defendant was read out in open court.
However, Defendant Professor Ananda Samarasekera declared in the court that he was not guilty of the charges.
Previously, the defense counsel had filed a preliminary objection to the manner in which the Attorney General’s charges were filed against the defendant.
The High Court judge issued an order on matter declaring that the preliminary objections raised by the defendant were baseless.
Accordingly, the Attorney General had the opportunity to amend the charges and if not the defendant will have to be released by the court, informed the Judge.
Deputy Solicitor General Dilan Ratnayake, appearing on behalf of the Attorney General, told the court that the charge sheet will be amended.
After reading the revised charge sheet to the defendant, the court ordered the case to be postponed to February 24.
On the 17th of July 2012, local rugby player Wasim Thajudeen was found dead inside his car that was ablaze in front of the Shalika playground in Narahenpita.
It was initially ruled that the death was caused by a motor accident; however, it was later revealed the rugby player was murdered.
Dr. Samarasekara was assigned to conduct the postmortem examination on Thajudeen’s body, but he had not actively taken part in the procedure and handed over the responsibility to two of his junior medical officers.
The Attorney General alleges that Dr. Samarasekara, during the postmortem examination, had destroyed evidence of the case by intentionally displacing two of the bone fragments from the body, which were vital for the proceedings of the investigations, says Attorney General’s Coordinating Officer State Counsel Nishara Jayaratne.
Dr. Samarasekara had surrendered to the court back in 2017 over Wasim Thajudeen’s murder case and was granted bail later.
