Former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to return to Sri Lanka from Singapore: Cabinet spokesman
Colombo(PTI): Sri Lanka's former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa is not in hiding and is expected to return to the country from Singapore, Cabinet spokesman Bandula Gunawardena said on Tuesday.
Rajapaksa, 73, fled Sri Lanka after the July 9 uprising when people broke into the President's House after months of public protests against him for mishandling the country's worst economic crisis since 1948.
Rajapaksa first fled to the Maldives on July 13 and from there he proceeded to Singapore the next day.
When asked about Rajapaksa at a weekly Cabinet media briefing, Cabinet Spokesman Gunawardena told reporters that the former president was not in hiding and he is expected to return from Singapore.
Gunawardena, who is also the Minister for Transport and Highways and Mass Media, said he does not believe the former president fled the country, and is in hiding.
He, however, did not offer any other details of Rajapaksa's possible return.
Singapore has granted a 14-day short-term visit pass to the former president as he entered the country on a "private visit" on July 14.
A spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Singapore earlier said that Rajapaksa has not asked for asylum and neither has he been granted any asylum.
Singapore's Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) has said that visitors from Sri Lanka who enter Singapore for social visits will generally be issued with a short-term visit pass (STVP) with a duration of up to 30 days.
Those who need to extend their stay in Singapore have to apply online for an extension of their STVP. Applications will be assessed on a case-by-case basis, said the ICA.
Meanwhile, commenting on the request made to the Singapore Attorney General to detain the Former Sri Lankan President, the Cabinet Spokesperson said that if there is a situation, the responsible officials in the country will take steps to ensure no harm is done to the former president, the Daily Mirror newspaper quoted Gunawardena as saying.
Lawyers from South Africa-based International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) have submitted a criminal complaint to the Attorney General of Singapore requesting the immediate arrest of Rajapaksa for war crimes.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa served as the defence secretary during his elder brother Mahinda Rajapaksa's tenure as president from 2005 to 2014.
Though dubbed as the war hero , his role in ending the conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) with the death of its supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran in 2009 is quite divisive as he stands accused of violating human rights, a charge he vehemently denies.
The case was withdrawn when he was elected President in 2019 and acquired immunity from prosecution as the head of state. That immunity no longer applies now he has resigned from office. This is believed to be the first criminal complaint against him.
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Broken relationships don't automatically amount to abetment of suicide: SC
New Delhi (PTI): Broken relationships, while emotionally distressing, do not automatically amount to abetment of suicide in the absence of intention leading to the criminal offence, the Supreme Court on Friday said.
The observations came from a bench of Justices Pankaj Mithal and Ujjal Bhuyan in a judgement, which overturned the conviction of one Kamaruddin Dastagir Sanadi by the Karnataka High Court for the offences of cheating and abetment of suicide under the IPC.
"This is a case of a broken relationship, not criminal conduct," the judgment said.
Sanadi was initially charged under Sections 417 (cheating), 306 (abetment of suicide), and 376 (rape) of the IPC.
While the trial court acquitted him of all the charges, the Karnataka High Court, on the state's appeal, convicted him of cheating and abetment of suicide, sentencing him to five years imprisonment and imposing Rs 25,000 in fine.
According to the FIR registered at the mother's instance, her 21-year-old daughter was in love with the accused for the past eight years and died by suicide in August, 2007, after he refused to keep his promise to marry.
Writing a 17-page judgement, Justice Mithal analysed the two dying declarations of the woman and noted that neither was there any allegation of a physical relationship between the couple nor there was any intentional act leading to the suicide.
The judgement therefore underlined broken relationships were emotionally distressing, but did not automatically amount to criminal offences.
"Even in cases where the victim dies by suicide, which may be as a result of cruelty meted out to her, the courts have always held that discord and differences in domestic life are quite common in society and that the commission of such an offence largely depends upon the mental state of the victim," said the apex court.
The court further said, "Surely, until and unless some guilty intention on the part of the accused is established, it is ordinarily not possible to convict him for an offence under Section 306 IPC.”
The judgement said there was no evidence to suggest that the man instigated or provoked the woman to die by suicide and underscored a mere refusal to marry, even after a long relationship, did not constitute abetment.
