by Himangi Jayasundere
The suspects in the killing of Achintha Gunaratne who died in an opposition street march on July 19, were ordered to be produced before court on August 14, by Magistrate Ajit M. Masinghe.

The Magistrate also allowed an application to transfer the investigation involving the killing to the Special Investigations Unit.

Giving evidence on a previous occasion, two police constables admitted to shooting the deceased on the instruction of a Superintendent of Police.

Giving evidence before court yesterday, two witnesses, Senarath Jayakody and Nimal Samarasinghe said that they travelled to Biyagama from Dedigama, in a bus with a load of about 42. They stopped near the Kelaniya temple and about seven or eight of them started walking along the Biyagama road towards Kandy road where a group of policemen were posted. He said that they wanted to obtain police permission to join a larger group who were gathering on the Kandy road. However without prior warning the police began to shoot them as they approached.

Senarath Jayakody said that shots were fired towards him and one of them struck Gunaratne who was just behind him. The witness claimed that his group was unarmed and that there was no provocation whatsoever on their part to initiate shooting.

Counsel appearing for the interests of the deceased pointed out that the SP who had ordered the two police constables to fire at the men was also responsible for the outcome and should be arrested as his order to fire was unjustified.

Further proceedings were fixed for August 14.