SC dismisses Dr. Shafi’s FR petition challenging arrest

The Supreme Court decided yesterday (16) dismissed the Fundamental Rights Petition filed by Dr. Mohammad Shafi of the Kurunegala Teaching Hospital, requesting a ruling to declare that his fundamental rights had been  violated due to his illegal arrest and detention. The Supreme Court dismissed this petition pointing out that there was enough information and evidence to arrest him and conduct an investigation on charges including reasons such as millions of rupees being credited to the doctor’s bank account two weeks after the Easter Sunday terror attack, possession of assets worth over Rs.40 million rupees without any solid sources for how the money was earned and having contacts with the Tawheed Jamath organization.

The Bench also pointed out that the court has no power to order the suspension of such investigations.

On May 24, 2019, the petitioner, who had been accused in the print media and social media of being a doctor who had performed sterilization procedures on around 4,000 Sinhala Buddhist women, was arrested by a group of officers from the Kurunegala Police.

It was stated that no reasons for the arrest were read to the petitioner. Thus he had filed these petitions asking to declare that his fundamental rights were violated by the incident of arrest.