{"id":158596,"date":"2016-03-04T15:02:30","date_gmt":"2016-03-04T09:32:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=158596"},"modified":"2016-03-04T15:06:56","modified_gmt":"2016-03-04T09:36:56","slug":"audio-champika-ranawaka-in-hot-water-as-new-evidence-surfaces-on-rajagiriya-accident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/audio-champika-ranawaka-in-hot-water-as-new-evidence-surfaces-on-rajagiriya-accident\/","title":{"rendered":"Audio: Champika Ranawaka In Hot Water As New Evidence Surfaces On Rajagiriya Accident"},"content":{"rendered":"

Megapolis and Western Province Development Minister Champika Ranawaka who denied<\/span><\/a> his involvement in an accident in Rajagiriya, is in hot water as new evidence has surfaced confirming his involvement which left one person critically injured and in ICU.<\/p>\n

\"Champika\"<\/a>An eyewitness account detailing the accident on Sunday night, claimed that the vehicle, a Nissan Patrol which knocked the bike driver around 10 p.m. at Rajagiriya was in fact been driven by Ranawaka.<\/p>\n

\u201cSoon after the accident happened, the driver of the Nissan Patrol sped away, but we followed him and when we stopped and I got down to go and assault him, the driver said \u2018I am Champika Ranawaka, don\u2019t assault me, it is my fault, let\u2019s go to the Borella police station,\u201d a friend of the victim said.<\/p>\n

But, the eyewitness said he did not want to risk going with the Minister, as he did not know what will happen to him and instead demanded the Minister\u2019s ID card, who had refused to give it to him.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyway, we went to the police (on our own) immediately to lodge a complaint and even our statements were taken only many hours later, and that too in a book that looked like some receipt book, and our statement was written in one of the last pages,\u201d the eyewitness said.<\/p>\n

According to him when they went the next day to follow up on the case, the police had informed them that the person who drove the vehicle had surrendered and he was produced in court and bailed out. \u201cWe saw the vehicle but even the license plate number was covered. We don\u2019t know who surrendered even, and when the victim is still in ICU, how can they grant the culprit bail,\u201d he questioned.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile in a letter addressed to the Inspector General of Police, three Parliamentarians; Shehan Semasinghe, Kanchana Wijesekara and D. V. Chanaka queried whether the police had checked the CCTV camera’s following the accident to verify the culprit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe police must understand that it is their responsibility to bring the actual culprit to book. Law should be the same to everyone. We call upon you to ensure that an impartial investigation is carried out so the public’s confidence in the law will be upheld,” the letter stated in the letter addressed to N. K. Illangakoon today.<\/p>\n

Audio of an eyewitness account:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\t

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