The body of Janashakti Group Director Dinesh Shafter, who was buried at the Borella Public Cemetery, was exhumed yesterday (25) in the presence of the five-member medical committee and family members under the supervision of Colombo Additional Magistrate Rajindra Jayasuriya, to the Galle Karapitiya Teaching Hospital for the second post-mortem examination. He was taken in a hearse under special police protection.
Accordingly, the body was brought to the mortuary of the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital at around 3.00 in the evening and a few moments later it underwent a special scan under the full supervision of expert forensic doctors. A senior professor of forensic medicine said that such special scans are performed according to the modern methods of forensic science and thus can reveal the special conditions of the body’s interior. He further disclosed that the body will be subjected to an autopsy for further examination in accordance with the information revealed by the scan.
The special post-forensic examination of Mr. Shafter’s body is scheduled to be conducted today (26) at the Forensic Medicine Unit of Karapitiya Hospital.
According to an order issued by the court, the five-member medical board chaired by Prof. Asela Mendis, forensic specialist of the University of Colombo, doctors and officers of the Colombo Forensic Medical Office, Borella Soko officers, Mr. Shafter’s father, brothers and brother-in-law, the investigation team of the Criminal Investigation Department, In order to identify the place of burial, five workers of Malshala, representing the side of the deceased, in front of President’s lawyer Mr. Anuja Premaratne and a group of lawyers, yesterday (25) in the morning.
After identifying the place where the body was buried in the Borella Public Cemetery at around 8.45, the Magistrate made the relevant notes and after photographing the place, Soco officers were seen digging the grave where the body was buried very carefully by the five workers of Malshala.
Then in the morning At around 9.40 am, the coffin containing the buried body was slowly recovered by the workers. In front of the magistrate and the medical committee, the seals of the box were removed and shown to the relatives of Mr. Shafter’s family, and the relatives were able to identify the body by the blue shirt and black pants that Mr. Shafter was said to be wearing. After the relatives identified the body, the body was sealed again and placed in the hearse.
Later, the Criminal Investigation Department recorded statements from relatives and related parties and the body was taken from Borella Cemetery to Galle Karapitiya Hospital under strict police protection. In addition, the five-member expert medical committee and the officials and doctors of the Colombo Forensic Medicine Office also conducted an on-site inspection of the place where Mr. Shafter encountered the incident at the Borella Cemetery.
It is a peculiar fact that the police even prevented journalists from entering the Borella cemetery to cover the event when the court had rejected the request made by the relatives of Mr. Shafter to carry out the exhumation of his body secretly. After completing the initial steps to recover the body, the police allowed the media to enter the Borella cemetery after placing the body in the hearse.
Based on the evidence collected by the five-member expert medical panel investigating whether the death of Mr. Dinesh Shafter was suicide or murder, the body was exhumed and a post-mortem examination was carried out on the recommendations of the committee.
This five-member medical committee chaired by Dr. Asela Mendis, a pathologist at the University of Colombo, was chaired by Dr. D.C.R. of the Ruhunu University. Perera, Peradeniya University Pathologist Professor D. Fernando, Peradeniya Hospital Senior Forensic Medical Officer S. Sivasubramaniam and Galle Karapitiya Hospital Senior Forensic Officer GR. It has members from Ruwanpura.
