The Sri Lankan police officer accused of beating a Tamil youth to death has boasted of at least 9 different murders claimed the murdered man’s parents, as a second autopsy revealed that there were at least 31 different injuries on their son’s body.
Speaking to reporters after a hearing in front Batticaloa Magistrate AC Rizwan, 22-year old Chandran Vithusan’s parents named the officer responsible for their son’s killing as SI Mohammed.
“He was the one that in front of our eyes beat [Vithusan],” said both his parents, as his mother broke down in tears. They added that he boasted of the killing, claiming it was his 9th murder and that there was nothing that could be done about it.
Their comments came as a second autopsy carried out by the Batticaloa Teaching Hospital found at least 31 different injuries on Vithusan’s body.
The 22-year old was tied to a tree and assaulted in front of his family members by Sri Lankan police officers, before being taken into custody by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on June 3rd. He was pronounced dead the following morning.
An initial autopsy led by the Special Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) cited a drug overdose as the cause of death. Vithusan’s family repeatedly raised suspicions, insisting his death was a result of police brutality.
The trial of this case has now been adjourned till December 15th and the magistrate has directed the police to submit the second post-mortem report to the court as soon as possible.
File photograph: Chandran Vithusan
