UNP urges Govt. to expedite probe into SC fire

• Police have ruled out the cause of the fire being an electrical leak
• Government asked to audit all case records stored in the court complex

By Yohan Perera 

The United National Party (UNP) yesterday urged the Government to expedite the investigations into the cause of the fire at the Supreme Court complex which occurred earlier this month. 

“While the police have ruled out the cause of the fire being an electrical leak, they have still been unable to ascertain what caused this fire at the apex of the country’s judiciary. Furthermore, while police have indicated that the fire may have been caused by an individual failing to extinguish his cigarette properly, they are unable to confirm this theory. As the Supreme Court complex is a high-security zone, and the fire threatened the court records, the party requests that the Government concludes their investigations as soon as possible to identify this lapse in security,” the party said in a statement. 

“Furthermore, the party had previously enquired from the Government as to the progress of the digitization of the court records which was begun by the UNP in 2019. This incident has highlighted the urgency of such a task, and the Government must present to the public the progress of this undertaking. UNP has also asked the Government to audit all case records that are stored in the basement of the court complex to ensure that no files were damaged or went missing during the fire.

 This too is essential to ensure no disruption occurs to any ongoing cases. We ask that the Government publicly present the findings of the audit,” the statement added.