Police cop that publicly drowned a psychiatric patient in Colombo sea surrenders

(October 31, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Lankadeepa Sinhala daily of Sri Lanka said that the cop who was captured in a video of a TV channel in Colombo city while publicly beating a Tamil psychiatric patient until the latter drowned is one named Dimuthu with the police constable number 47749. The police officer that worked in Bamabalapitiya police station surrendered to the Colombo Crime Division.

Police says further investigations are underway to trace his accomplice.

The police officer has gone to the scene where the mad man was throwing stones at the running trains and vehicles with four others including a Police Inspector and a Sub Inspector.

The body of the deceased was recovered by Sri Lanka Navy yesterday afternoon, a day after the incident. He was identified as 26-year-old Balawarnan Sivakumar, by his brother, a resident of Rathmalana. The man had been suffering from a mental disorder since a long time, his brother told.

Galle High Court sentenced several persons involved in robbery and murder of a young woman during 2004 Boxing Day tsunami at Galle bus stand based on video witness despite the body of the victim was not recovered and a postmortem was not carried out.