{"id":77822,"date":"2022-06-02T00:12:23","date_gmt":"2022-06-02T04:12:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=77822"},"modified":"2022-06-02T00:46:18","modified_gmt":"2022-06-02T04:46:18","slug":"attorney-general-instructs-police-to-file-charges-under-section-291a-of-the-penal-code-against-bodu-bala-sena-general-secretary-galagodaaththe-gnanasara-thera-for-uttering-words-that-were-harmful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=77822","title":{"rendered":"Attorney General  instructs Police to file charges under Section 291A of the Penal Code against Bodu Bala Sena General Secretary  Galagodaaththe Gnanasara Thera, for  uttering words that were harmful to religious sentiments."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><br \/>\nBY Buddhika Samaraweera<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Police\u2019s Colombo Crime Prevention Division informed Colombo Fort Chief Magistrate Thilina Gamage yesterday (31 May) that the Attorney General (AG) has instructed to file charges under Section 291A of the Penal Code against Bodu Bala Sena General Secretary Ven. Galagodaaththe Gnanasara Thera, for allegedly using words that are harmful to religious sentiments.<\/p>\n<p>Sections 291A reads thus: \u201cWhoever, with the deliberate intention of wounding the religious feelings of any person, utters any word or makes any sound in the hearing of that person, or makes any gesture in the sight of that person, or places any object in the sight of that person, shall be punished\u201d if convicted, with a maximum term of imprisonment of one year and\/or a fine.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The Crime Prevention Division had initiated an investigation against Ven. Gnanasara Thera for allegedly expressing insulting statements about the Quran to the media on 12 April 2014. The excerpts of the investigation had later been referred for the AG\u2019s advice.<\/p>\n<p>Accordingly, the Crime Prevention Division informed the Court that AG Sanjay Rajaratnam PC had instructed to file charges under Section 291A against Gnanasara Thera.<\/p>\n<p>A representative of the AG\u2019s Department appeared for the plaintiff while Attorney-at-Law MP Premnath C. Dolawatte appeared for the defendant. The Chief Magistrate adjourned the case till 14 November.<\/p>\n<p><em>Courtesy:The Mornig<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"tweetbutton77822\" class=\"tw_button\" style=\"float:right;margin-left:10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdbsjeyaraj.com%2Fdbsj%2F%3Fp%3D77822&amp;text=Attorney%20General%20%20instructs%20Police%20to%20file%20charges%20under%20Section%20291A%20of%20the%20Penal%20Code%20against%20Bodu%20Bala%20Sena...%20&amp;related=&amp;lang=en&amp;count=horizontal\" class=\"twitter-share-button\"  style=\"width:55px;height:22px;background:transparent url('https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-tweet-button\/tweetn.png') no-repeat  0 0;text-align:left;text-indent:-9999px;display:block;\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BY Buddhika Samaraweera The Police\u2019s Colombo Crime Prevention Division informed Colombo Fort Chief Magistrate Thilina Gamage yesterday (31 May) that the Attorney General (AG) has instructed to file charges under Section 291A of the Penal Code against Bodu Bala Sena General Secretary Ven. Galagodaaththe Gnanasara Thera, for allegedly using words that are harmful to religious &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=77822\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading &lsquo;Attorney General  instructs Police to file charges under Section 291A of the Penal Code against Bodu Bala Sena General Secretary  Galagodaaththe Gnanasara Thera, for  uttering words that were harmful to religious sentiments.&rsquo; &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77822"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=77822"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77823,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77822\/revisions\/77823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=77822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=77822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=77822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}