By

Camelia Nathaniel

According to the police Malaka Silva had been denied bail and was transferred from a private hospital to General Hospital last week and he would be produced again for an identification parade on the 18th of this month. While this is not the first time Malaka has been involved in such incidents, according to his father minister Mervyn Silva his behaviour is nothing out of the ordinary and not something that should be taken seriously.

According to the police spokesman SSP Ajith Rohana what happened that day at the night club was all recorded on CCTV cameras and had been taken by the police as evidence. Speaking to The Sunday Leader SSP Rohana said that Scotsman James Casserly is an engineer attached to a construction company and has been working in Sri Lanka for about a year. His girlfriend Belinda Mackenzie had arrived in Sri Lanka on October 29 to celebrate James’s birthday and they had visited the R&B night club that night for Halloween.

According to that footage, Malaka and a Belinda had been dancing and suddenly it appeared like she kicked him. It is believed that whilst dancing he had tried to impose himself on her in some manner. Thereafter James had assaulted Malaka in defence of his girlfriend. Thereafter about five others who were with Malaka had assaulted James and he had sustained injuries to his head, while Belinda had also received injuries.

Meanwhile Malaka too had received injuries to his nose where the bridge of his nose is believed to have been broken by James’s blow.

However Malaka and seven others who were with him were arrested by the police for assaulting the foreigner and it is believed that the foreigner had attacked Malaka upon being provoked. By last Thursday the case was taken up for hearing and Malaka who was receiving treatment at a private hospital under the custody of prison officers was transferred to the Colombo General Hospital and remains under police custody. Malaka who was arrested on November 4 was refused bail and ordered to remain under police custody until the date he will be produced before an identification parade on t November 18.
Minister Mervyn Silva however was reported to have indicated that he intended to take his son Malaka to Singapore, but according to the police spokesman he has not been allowed to leave the country.
Further investigations have revealed that the two Ministerial Security Division (MSD) officers who accompanied Malaka Silva, were not involved in the alleged assault of the foreign couple at a night club in Colombo.

However when The Sunday Leader asked the police spokesman if those involved in assaulting James were members of the Ministerial security division, or if they were private security officers, he said that investigations were under way to ascertain the identities of these security officers and depending on the outcome of these investigations appropriate action will be initiated.

The CID has recorded over 10 statements so far including that of Malaka. We were initially not permitted to get a statement from Malaka as he was under prison custody and we had to obtain a magistrates order to obtain his statement. Since he was under the custody of prison authorities we were unable to obtain a statement from him without the prior approval of the court the very first day the incident occurred.
We have also recorded the statement of the club manager. It appears that Malaka has a prior court order prohibiting him from entering any night club and we intend to also investigate to ascertain if that court order was still in effect and if he had deliberately defied this court order.

Courtesy:The Sunday Leader