Thursday, September 09, 2004

Man who disgraced Lord Buddha remanded - By Rebecca Fleming (www.dailymirror.lk/2004/09/10)

A person attached to a non-government organisation who was arrested by Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for introducing pictures of nude women with Lord Buddha's image through the Internet was ordered to be remanded till September 23 by Colombo Acting Magistrate yesterday.

Acting Magistrate Vickum Kaluarachchi remanded Gamini Ranawaka of Himbutana, attached to IUCN, the World Conservation Union.

The CID had initiated investigations following information received from the IGP on August 23. The pictures had been disseminated through a web site called, www.geocities.comaprna. Their investigations revealed the address of the web designer, 54 Wijerama Road, Colombo-7 through the Internet Protocol (IP) number found on August 11. He had sent e-mail from the web site between 1.30-1.35 (Pacific time) on August 11. The subscriber had connected himself through the telephone line 2682465 which belonged to the NGO.

The suspect had admitted the offence when he was arrested and had said that the organization was not involved in this.

The CID said that the organization could be charged under Volunteer Social Service Act, as it was not registered at the National Secretariat as a non-foreign government organization.

Counsels appearing for the suspect said that he was regretting what he did and said that he was willing to plead guilty once the charges were filed. They made an application to release the suspect. Acting Magistrate queried from the CID as to why they had not included the legal provisions. The CID said they would do it when they file the charges.