Protecting state witnesses, a need of the hour

Recent revelations regarding the murder of former Havelocks Sports Club rugby captain Wasim Thajudeen are both shocking and disturbing.

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With missing information and various attempts to hide evidence, people were forced to believe that it was a mere accident caused as a result of drunk driving, until former President Maithripala Sirisena assumed power by reminding voters that he would do justice to the murders of Sunday Leader Editor-in-Chief Lasantha Wickrematunga, journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda and Wasim Thajudeen.

Submissions made by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) to the then Colombo Additional Magistrate Nishantha Peiris in July 2015 indicated that Thajudeen's death was not accidental, but a murder. The CID informed Magistrate Peiris that the investigations conducted so far had revealed that Thajudeen's teeth had been broken, the bones in the pelvic region also broken and his neck pierced with a sharp instrument prior to his death. The CID added that muscles in his legs had been cut with a piece of broken glass.