The naive attempt to transform the mysterious killing of Dinesh Shafter, who was a director of the Jana Shakti Group, into a suicide by popularizing the idea that it was a suicide, has now become null and void before the court. The order given by Colombo Additional Magistrate Rajindra Jayasuriya to the Criminal Investigation Department on the 1st of last year to arrest the killers of Dinesh Shafter and bring them to court was a blow to the ears of many who tried hard to claim that the murder was a suicide. Sri Lanka Latest News
Although the initial investigation of the mysterious death of Dinesh Shafter was carried out by the Borella Police, the investigations are assigned to the Criminal Investigation Department by the Inspector General of Police C. D. Wickramaratne. Dinesh was a well-known businessman known to the whole country and since this death had already led to controversy, with the aim of solving it very quickly. However, there is still a problem whether the relevant investigative team of the Criminal Investigation Department was able to give a proper explanation as to what happened to Dinesh Shafter at the Borella Public Cemetery on December 15. That is why it led to debate even in court.
The investigating officers of the Homicide and Organized Crime Investigation Division of the Criminal Investigation Department initially believed this death to be a murder and carried out the investigation very diligently, but in the end, the investigation turned upside down as no one could have imagined, and the death turned out to be a suicide. Correspondingly, the forensic reports were also changed from time to time and the investigation progress was also reported to the court.
Due to this situation, his father Chandra Shafter, the chairman of Janashakti Group, came to defend the rights of the deceased Dinesh Shafter. Seeking justice for the death of his child, he went to the court with the support of a team of talented lawyers led by Anuja Premaratne and Saliya Peiris, drawing the court’s attention to the conflicting conditions in the forensic reports as well as the investigation problems. It is because of that group of lawyers that it is not possible to conclude that Dinesh Shafter committed suicide by swallowing cyanide. Due to the arguments of the legal team, even the court has to get an expert opinion regarding Dinesh Shafter’s death. A five-member expert medical committee is also appointed accordingly. It was on February 27
The other members of the committee chaired by Prof. Asela Mendis, forensic specialist of Colombo University, were Prof. D. C. R. Perera, of Ruhunu University ,Peradeniya University Pathologist Professor D. H. H. Fernando, Kandy Peradeniya Senior Chief Forensic Officer S. Shivasubramaniam and Chief Senior Forensic Officer of Galle Karapitiya Hospital G. R. Doctors who go to Ruwanpura.
This committee consisting of five well-known professionals of the country is starting the investigation into the death of Dinesh Shafter with an open mind. At the end of an investigation, even the body of Dinesh Shafter, who was buried in the Borella Public Cemetery, was exhumed and even a post-mortem was carried out delicately to find out whether this death was actually caused by suicide or by a third party.
The five-member medical committee, which spent considerable time for that, finally submited their opinion to the court on the 1st . The report of the expert committee confirms that Dinesh Shafter’s death, which turned out to be a suicide, was a murder. Colombo Additional Magistrate Rajindra Jayasuriya even issued an order to the Criminal Investigation Department to arrest the killers accordingly.
According to the initial investigation into the death of Dinesh Shafter, the death was a homicide. That, the killing is done by strangulation. That is according to the post-mortem report which was held less than 24 hours after his murder. The second post-mortem report also comes out from the same forensic doctor who prepared the original report. According to that, Dinesh Shafter died due to strangulation. It meant nothing else but that Dinesh Shafter had been strangled to death by himself. After that, another post-mortem report came out. It is also the same forensic doctor who puts it out. Accordingly, Dinesh Shafter’s death was caused by cyanide. This also means that Dinesh Shafter committed suicide by consuming cyanide.
The surprising fact here is that all the three conflicting post-mortem reports giving the cause of death were submitted by a forensic doctor who was under suspension at that time. Confirming the third post-mortem medical report of the forensic doctor, the investigators of the Homicide and Organized Crime Investigation Division of the Criminal Investigation Department also started to tell the strange stories that their research revealed. The problem that arises now is that the forensic report said that the death of Dinesh Shafter was a suicide based on the investigation information of the Criminal Investigation Department? If not, whether the Homicide and Organized Crime Division of the Criminal Investigation Department is conducting investigations based on the forensic report.
A careful study of the investigations into Dinesh Shafter’s death shows that all of them tried to get an order from the court that Dinesh Shafter’s death was a suicide and end the work. It went wrong because the family members of Dinesh Shafter were not at all ready to accept that this death was a suicide. From their side, they came forward saying that this was an organized human killing.
While some people are trying to create social opinions that can confirm that Dinesh Shafter committed suicide, Professor Asela Mendis, who chaired the five-person committee that confirmed that this death was not a suicide, points out that the death of Dinesh Shafter was due to the intervention of a third party. His report has clearly shown the facts to the court that what happened. The court concluded that this death was a murder and the Criminal Investigation Department has to issue an order to arrest the killers based on the expert medical opinion.
According to Prof. Asela Mendis, this death was caused by a third party. That is why it has been stated in the report of the expert committee.
Accordingly, the Criminal Investigation Department can no longer wait for Dinesh Shafter’s death to be a suicide. The third party responsible for this death should be identified, arrested and brought to court. A court order has also been issued in this regard.
Dinesh Shafter becomes a victim of criminals at Borella Public Cemetery. During the observation of the place where he was a victim of criminals, it was evident at the beginning that a person who did not know about the place would not come there with a vehicle. The car in which Dinesh Shafter was killed had entered the cemetery and had gone straight there. Through that, it was said that the car was taken there by an experienced person who knows about the place. The challenge of finding out whether the veteran is Dinesh Shafter or his killer is now assigned to the Criminal Investigation Department.
Regardless of the direction the Shafter murder investigation takes, one of the most important witnesses is Nilama, who works as a laborer at the Borella Public Cemetery. Nilamya also intervened to take Dinesh Shafter to the Colombo National Hospital when he was fighting for life and death in his car.
After that mysterious person disappeared from the car, Dinesh Shafter’s business associate and friend appeared next. The man, who was wearing a white banyan and black pants, circled around the car and started yelling. Saying someone’s name. Nilam, who turned her attention towards it, runs there along with her friend John de Kati. That friend of Nilam is none other than a graveyard worker.
The screaming friend opens the driver’s side door of the car after Nilam and John get there. There they both see Dinesh Shafter in the driver’s seat of the car with his hands tied with cable ties. At that time, they all saw a wire wrapped around his body. Obviously, they even gave statements to the police. Nilamya removes the wire that was wrapped around the body.
Although Nilam tried to remove the cable ties that had tied his hands, it was not an easy task, so the friend and Nilam lifted Dinesh Shafter to the seat next to the driver’s seat with great difficulty. John also helped. Then the friend who gets into the driver’s seat starts the car and brings Dinesh Shafter to the Colombo National Hospital with Nilam and John in the car. While coming, Nilam had also tried hard to bring Dinesh Shafter to his senses by pushing his chest. The death of Dinesh Shafter not only ends all these efforts but also leaves behind a string of mysteries associated with this death. For some, this death may have been a suicide. Now all those things have become a lie because the lie did not last long.
Even the Criminal Investigation Department is making every effort to present the necessary evidence to prove that Dinesh Shafter committed suicide. It may be because they have the most evidence from that side.
When the officers of the Criminal Investigation Department pushed through their investigative data to push the death of Dinesh Shafter to a point where it was not a murder, the President’s lawyer Anuja Premaratne continued to point out before the court the contradictions in the post-mortem investigation which can clearly reveal the facts whether this death was a murder or a suicide.
Meanwhile, the DNA test done on the wire that tied Dinesh Shafter’s neck, the zip tie that tied his hands, etc., has now revealed that a guest’s DNA sample was found there. The officers of the Homicide and Organized Crime Division of the Criminal Investigation Department, who brought up a bunch of investigative information indicating that Dinesh Shafter’s death was a suicide, now have a challenge to identify the owner of the sample and to find the mysterious person who disappeared near Dinesh Shafter’s car. How long will it take the CID to overcome that challenge? Will a criminal who went into hiding between this murder and the time become a murder not caught before the law? is determined by the interest and commitment shown by the officers of the Homicide and Organized Crime Investigation Division of the Criminal Investigation Department. –
l Gayan Kumara Weerasinghe
