Appeal Court Judge Sarath de Abrew caused havoc in Bangalore airport when he verbally abused his colleagues and even attacked one with a bottle of water, while returning home after a judges’ conference.

Sri Lankan newspaper Dailly Mirror reported the story without naming the judge as follows;

A Sri Lankan Appeal Court Judge allegedly caused havoc in an Indian airport when he verbally abused his colleagues and even attacked one with a bottle of water, while returning home after a judges’ conference. The incident was reported to the President, the Daily Mirror learns.

Creating a huge scene at the Business Lounge of the Bangalore and shocking many foreign onlookers the senior judge, had allegedly berated several judges in language that shocked the foreign passengers who heard his profanity. The individual who went on scolding his colleagues both in Sinhala and English for more than 10 minutes had later hit one of them with a water bottle.

The Daily Mirror reliably learns that the affected judge had made a complaint to the President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the appointing authority of judges through the Chief Justice and also to Chief Justice Mohan Pieris, Head of the Judiciary, and the other Supreme Court judges. The newspaper also came to know that the complaint had already reached the President.

The embarrassing incident had taken place when a ten-judge squad comprising Appeal Court Judges from Sri Lanka had participated at a conference held from April 17 to 24. On April 23 night, seven judges including the judge involved in the incident had been dropped of by the organisers at the Bangalore Airport while three others had taken different routes.

As soon as the bus reached the airport, the suspected judge had outrun the others to pick up a trolley but mistakenly left one of his bags behind. Being aware of the nature and temperament of the judge, the others had not touched or taken out the bag. Later, on realizing this he had gone off in verbally abusive parlance at the other judges which ended up in the bottle-attack.

However, it is learnt that none of the judges – including the victim of the bottle-attack – had retaliated in any manner. Yet, considering the massive damage caused to the reputation of the Sri Lankan judges and judiciary at an international public location, he had brought the incident to the President’s notice – By Susitha R. Fernando

Correction: The first version of this story mistakenly named the judge as Justice Sisira de Abrew when it should have been Sarath de Abrew. We apologise to Justice Sisira de Abrew unreservedly for the error.