Trial Of Lynching Of Sri Lankan National Shifted To Kot Lakhpat Jail In Lahore

Lahore, Feb 10: The Punjab government has decided to shift the trial of the lynching of Sri Lankan factory manager Priyantha Kumara from Gujranwala to the Kot Lakhpat prison in Lahore. A special prosecution team (SPT) has been designated to plead the case against the suspects from a Sialkot factory. Priyantha, who was working as a factory manager at Rajco Industries in Sialkot, was lynched and his body was set on fire by workers over blasphemy allegations on December 3 last year.

An anti-terrorism court of Gujranwala was hearing the case. On Thursday, the government issued a notification that the trial will now be conducted inside Kot Lakhpat prison in Lahore. A three-member special prosecution team led by Special Prosecutor General Abdur Rauf Watto has been pursuing the case. The government has directed the prosecution team to submit the daily progress report of the case to Prosecutor General Punjab, media reports said. The investigation is in final stages. Following the killing of the Sri Lankan manager, police detained around 200 on the suspicion.

Later the police released over 100 detainees after the investigators analysed CCTV and phone videos and no corroborating evidence was found against them. However, over 80 who appeared on videos and were seen attacking Priyantha were arrested. Earlier in February, the police arrested two more suspects. Investigators said that they were at the rooftop of the factory when several workers got hold of Priyantha and later threw him down. The first conviction in the case came from the anti-terrorism court (ATC) where a suspect was awarded one-year imprisonment. The suspect justified the killing at the factory on social media and later confessed to his crime before the court. The ATC judge while announcing the verdict awarded him one year of imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs10,000. U