Supreme Court of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka: A Full Bench of Jayantha Jayasuriya, PC, CJ and Priyantha Jayawardena, PC, and Murdu N.B. Fernando, PC, JJ., allowed appeals filed by two appellants out of eight accused.
The two Accused-Appellant-Petitioners (hereinafter called Appellants) were charged along with six others in the Magistrate’s Court of Jaffna. They were charged for “Joining an Unlawful Assembly armed with any deadly weapon”, an offence punishable under Section 141 of the Penal Code; “Voluntarily Causing Grievous Hurt by dangerous weapons or means” while being members of an unlawful assembly, an offence punishable under Section 317 read with Section 146 of the Penal Code; and “Voluntarily Causing Grievous Hurt by dangerous weapons or means” punishable under Section 317 read with Section 32 of the Penal Code.
The Magistrate convicted all eight accused for the first two counts, after trial. The two appellants being aggrieved with the conviction and the sentence appealed to the High Court of Jaffna.
The High Court Judge affirmed the conviction and sentence. Thus the instant appeal was filed.
The Counsels for the appellants M.A. Sumanthiran, PC, J. Arulanantham and D. Mascarange contended that he would mainly address the issue of dock identification as there was no proper dock identification relating to two appellants and there was no sufficient evidence to establish the identity of the two appellants. There was no dispute that neither the victim nor any other witness, in this case, knew the two appellants.
The Court while allowing the appeal opinioned that the evidence was unsatisfactory and the conviction and sentence of the two appellants was set aside accordingly acquitted. [Rathnasingham Janushan v. Officer In-charge, SC (Spl) Appeal No. 07 of 2018, decided on 04-10-2019]