Prisons Doctor Claims Threatened with Death by Bathiudeen

A doctor, attached to the Magazine Prison in Borella, has lodged a complaint with the Police that he had been threatened with death by SJB MP Rishad Bathiudeen.

In his complaint the doctor has claimed that Bathiudeen had told him that it would not be impossible for him to get rid of the doctor. The doctor has stated that the person that had issued the death threat had warned that if he were to travel on the road in his vehicle, it would take only minutes for it to be reduced to ashes and if he were to die it would rob his wife of a spouse and his child of a father.

The doctor has stated that on 15 August when he had been administering treatment at the Prisons Dispensary to inmates, a person identified as Rishad Bathiudeen had entered it illegally and forcefully.

The complainant said, afterwards he had ordered Bathiudeen to leave the room saying that once the necessary details are obtained he will be summoned. Furthermore, the doctor had stated that the person identified as Bathiudeen had then revealed his political clout and had stated that if he wants he could even summon a better qualified doctor.

The doctor had then said at that stage Bathiudeen had issued his death threat, after having spoken of the political power that he wielded within both the Government and the SJB, while continuing to berate him in obscene language.

The doctor has further stated in his complaint that at the time of the aggressive behaviour of the MP concerned, at the Prisons Dispensary, an inmate and a Prison officer had also been present before three other Prison officers, having heard the ruckus, managed to take the MP away.

The Doctor has stated that the incident had also been witnessed by a few inmates who had arrived there to receive treatment and that he had decided to lodge the complaint having thought about his own security and that of his family.

Before lodging the complaint with the Borella Police the doctor had brought the incident to the attention of the Chief Medical Officer of the Prison and the Prisons ASP in writing.

Accordingly, based on a complaint lodged with the IGP, by the Prisons Commissioner General, further inquiries into the incident are being conducted by the CCD. A top Police officer, when contacted, said that the doctor had been summoned to the CCD yesterday to record a statement from him and added that a special Police team had been deployed to the Magazine Prison to conduct further investigations into the incident.

(Source: Ceylon Today – By Keerthi Mendis & Jayasinghe)