Alleged murder of businessman Dinesh Schaffter: Court orders a DNA report of Brian Thomas

Colombo Chief Magistrate's Court on Monday (24) ordered the Government Analyst to conduct a DNA test on former English cricket commentator Brian Thomas, a business friend of deceased Dinesh Schaffter. 

Colombo Additional Magistrate Rajindra Jayasuriya made this order based on the recommendations of the five-member expert committee of doctors in forensic Medicine and in the medical field.

This expert committee was appointed to probe and determine the cause or causes of the death of entrepreneur Dinesh Schaffer’s death. 

The medical experts in the committee had requested the court to issue an appropriate order since it would be useful for the ongoing investigations into Schaffter’s mobile phone recordings and WhatsApp messages.

On February 27, the Court appointed a five-member panel of medical experts to perform a fresh post-mortem inquiry into the death of businessman Dinesh Shafter, to ascertain whether the death was a murder or suicide. The five-member panel comprised Professor Asela Mendis (Chairman) Professor B.C.R. Perera, Professor D.H.S Fernando and two JMOs Dr Siva Subramanium and Dr B.R. Ruwanpura. They have been tasked with performing a fresh inquiry to decide the actual cause of death of businessman Dinesh Shafter.

The aggrieved party had highlighted several contradictions and inconsistencies in the first postmortem report compiled by the Colombo Judicial Medical Officer. A further magisterial inquiry is fixed for May 8.