By Public security minister Tiran Alles has directed the authorities to carry out a probe into a strip search incident of the Kolupitiya Police.
According to Alles stern action awaits any wrongdoers,” if identified, to ensure accountability and justice.”
The father of the allegedly harassed youth, Gerald De Saram has made the incident public
Gerald De Saram said that his son and his girlfriend were harassed on the evening of December 28 by officers from the Kollupitiya Police Station who were manning the security checkpoint at the Kollupitiya junction.
“My son and his friend had decided to call up a PickMe Tuk Tuk to take them to the Chillies restaurant at One Galle Face
The officers at the check point my y son and his friend were asked to disembark the Tuk Tuk and given a thorough body search by means of patting down and the thrusting of hands then their pockets. This was done not with any sort of curtesy but very roughly and crudely.
Gerald De Saram explains what happened next
“Thereafter the police turned their attention to my son’s carry pouch in which he stores his phone, purse and other personal belongings. These were all taken out and tossed onto the pavement. Having done this with the contents of my son’s pouch, the officers did the same with his wallet, littering the pavement with the contents of his purse, including the cash he was carrying. They thereafter did the same with his friend’s handbag and purse. It was clear by now that the motive of the police was to harass and bully a young person who had repeatedly asked the officers there why they were doing what they were doing, in front of his girlfriend and in plain view of the passing public at that busy intersection”.
The police officer who was leading the witch hunt found a pair of nail scissors and insisted that the scissors were used for some drug-related activity. “Beware all you hairdressers, manicurists, PAs, etc because the police now have proof, because you all carry or use scissors, that you are all into drugs!!, said the police officer.
As Gerald De Saram explains:
Having failed to find something to pin on my son, this pig of a cop took him behind their security hut along with about 4 of his colleagues and ordered him to remove his pants, which invitation my son’s invitation correctly declined. He then grabbed my son by his belt and manhandled him while ordering him again to strip. The poor boy, having never encountered this type of intensely threatening behaviour before, least of all from a police officer, was petrified and was bullied and traumatised into submission. He therefore complied by removing his trousers. But the officer was still not satisfied and asked the boy to remove his underwear as well. The now petrified kid did that as well and, as I imagine his fear and plight, both as his father and as another human being, my heart breaks for him. He has come through unimaginable difficulties and handicaps after his mother died of cancer when he was just 12 years old. That he has pulled through as he has is a testament to his courage and perseverance, qualities that were sadly lacking in his tormentors that evening.”
