CID requests Court to order Dr. Shafi to return CCTV camera recordings

By Pushpakumara Jayarathne   

   Officials of the Criminal Investigation Department yesterday requested the Kurunegala Magistrates’ Court to order Doctor Shafi Shihabdeen to return the recordings of the CCTV camera found at his house which should be a special court production under the CID since it had already been handed over to the suspect by some of the former officials of the CID.  

ASP Vijitha who represents the CID made this request when the case against  Dr. Shafi Shihabdeen who worked at the Kurunegala Teaching Hospital’s Gynaecology and Obstetric Unit,  accused of performing illegal sterilisation surgeries on Sinhala Buddhist mothers and amassing assets through suspicious means, was taken up before the Kurunegala Magistrates’ Court.  He informed the court that the suspect doctor was arrested on May 24 2019 by a group of police officers including the Kurunegala Police Criminal Investigation Division OIC, for amassing asserts through suspicious means. On that occasion recordings of the CCTV camera of the suspect’s house was also taken into custody and was named as a court production.   
Subsequently, further investigations with regard to the suspect were made by the CID and all documents together with court productions, taken over by the officials of the CID, he added.  
The particular court production despite being a major evidence had been returned to the suspect on the request of high officials of the CID who were previously in charge of the investigation, the ASP informed the court. He emphasised that this was by no means possible and added that many questionable individuals who came to meet the suspect were recorded in those CCTV recordings.