Making submissions to the Jaffna high court trial-at-bar that took up the murder of Pungudutivu schoolgirl Sivaloganathan Vidya yesterday (28), additional solicitor general Dappula de Livera said gang rapes were spreading like the plague in South India and other parts of South Asia.
A market has been created in other countries, especially in the West, for videos of gang-rapes which can be viewed via the internet, he said.
De Livera told the court that the police had impartially investigated the incident that had taken place in a remote and isolated islet in the Jaffna peninsula, without giving into any pressure, to ensure supremacy of the law and to show that all are given equal protection by the law. He said the crime committed in an unpoliced area has been taken up by a high court trial-at-bar as a matter of national importance in a landmark in criminal law history of Sri Lanka and to establish supremacy of the law.
Although a family member of Vithiya congratulated the police for rejecting the bribe he was not confident that the 8 members of the gang will be punished by law. It is common in Sri Lanka that the rapists are set free due to non availability of strong evidence and he believes that this is going to be another case to be dismissed by the judges. The gang members have threatened the journalist that they will teach them a lesson when they come out of police custody.
He requested the judges to watch videos of the incident, saying that every attempt would be made to recover the data that had been deleted by Swiss Kumar. The case will be taken up for six days continually.