Dunesh Priyashantha alias ‘Kondaya’ today alleged he was coerced while in detention at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) to sign a false statement indicating he had confessed to the killing of five-year-old Seya Sandewmi of Kotadeniyawa.
Appearing before the media for the first time just after he was granted bail by the Gampaha Magistrate, Dunesh charged that he was brutally beaten by the CID officers before he was forced to sign the lengthy confessional statement.
“I am not that literate. I did not make such a statement and therefore I did not know what the statement contained. I signed it because I was forced to do so after being beaten by the CID officers several times,” he said. “I never assisted my brother to commit this crime. I have never seen daughter Seya neither had I any connections with her family.
I did not even know that I was arrested on charges of molestation and the killing of Seya. I do not deny that I had a few court cases where I had been made guilty for one of my friend’s offences. I tried to avoid the police since I was scared that I would be arrested for those cases,” Dunesh said.
