Colombo court discharges two youths charged under PTA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 16 May 2007, 11:16 GMT]
Two youths, one a Tamil and another a Sinhalese, were discharged by the Colombo Magistrate Mr.Mohamed Irshadeen Tuesday when the prosecuting police officer told court that there was no evidence to implicate them with any crime. The two had been charged for taking photographs of Borella police station with their cell-phone camera, sources said.

The Borella Police arrested Balasubramaniam Ram Kumar of Point Pedro and his Sinhala friend Sunil of Warakapola while they were allegedly taking photographs of the Borella Police Station from the first floor of the Borella public market two months ago.

Since then both had been detained on the detention order served by the Defence Minister under Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).

The suspects were produced in court Tuesday.

Defence Counsel Dr.A.Gangatharan submitted to court that he would not object any action being taken against the suspects if photographs of the police station were found in cell-phone camera.

But police officials told court the suspects did not take photographs of the police station in their phone-camera. Hence the Magistrate made order discharging the suspects, legal sources said.