Over 1,000 artefacts missing from Sri Lanka's Presidential Palace, PM's official residence: Police
Colombo, Jul 23: More than 1,000 valuable artefacts, including items of vintage and antique value have reportedly gone missing from Sri Lanka's Presidential Palace and Prime Minister's official residence at Temple Trees here after irate anti-government protesters occupied these premises earlier this month, police said on Saturday.
On July 9, anti-government protesters occupied the residences of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe after storming into their premises and setting fire to one of the buildings protesting the government's handling of the unprecedented economic crisis.
Based on initial investigations at least 1,000 items of value, including rare artefacts have gone missing from the Presidential Palace as well as the Prime Minister's official residence, web portal Colombo Page quoted police sources as saying.
Special investigation teams have been formed to begin an investigation, it said.
What is compounding the agony for the investigative officers is that the Sri Lankan Department of Archaeology does not have a detailed record of the antiques and different artefacts at the Presidential Palace, even though it has been gazetted as a place of archaeological importance, the report said.
A senior official of the Department of Archaeology told Sunday Lankadeepa newspaper that it would be difficult to get specific and clear information about the exact number of antiques that have gone missing, even though police estimate that it could be well over 1,000.
Newly-elected President Ranil Wickremesinghe said he respects the rights of the protesters to peacefully undertake their demonstrations, but he asserted that he will not allow another government building like the Presidential Palace or the Prime Minister's private residence to be occupied.
Wickremesinghe said he has authorised Sri Lanka's armed forces and the police to take whatever action is necessary to stop people from storming public facilities and obstructing Parliament.
"Don't obstruct the parliamentarians and the parliament from carrying out their duty," he said this week.
In a pre-dawn raid on Friday, Sri Lankan security forces attacked a site of anti-government protesters at Galle Face, where several government offices are located, injuring at least nine persons.
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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.
