Bench warrant arrest for porn suspect

mlipen National, Normal

A SRI Lankan man, who was charged last year with possessing pornographic material, was arrested at his Tokarara home by police on Monday afternoon after a bench warrant was issued by the Boroko District Court for his arrest.    
Handun Sivanka De’silva of Colombo, Sri Lanka, was first arrested last Aug 13 for possessing 10 pornographic video CDs that contained explicit scenes of young PNG women performing sexual acts. 
He was released on K1,000 bail and appeared several times for mention at the Boroko District Court.
Sources said De’silva failed to appear in court on several occasions and the matter was prolonged in the District Court.
On Tuesday, the matter was listed for ruling at the District Court but De’silva failed to appear and the court issued a warrant for his arrest.
Sources said police went and raided the man’s residence at Tokarara and again confiscated six pornographic CDs and an unlicenced firearm.
He was locked up in police custody and appeared on Tuesday at the Boroko District Court.
The court forfeited part of his bail money to the State and ordered him to pay another K500 for failure to comply and appear in court proceedings.
However, De’silva’s council, Michael Wilson of Warner Shand Lawyers made an application for the matter to be transferred to the National Court to question the police over the arrest.
The matter was treated as a special fixture around 4pm on Tuesday but Mr Wilson sought an adjournment and the matter was adjourned to yesterday.
The warrant of arrest imposed was discharged and De’silva regained his bail after meeting the required amount imposed by the court.
Yesterday, the matter was adjourned again to Oct 30 where De’Silva’s counsel will challenge the State on the manner the police had arrested his client.
De’silva alleged that police approached him at his home on Monday and took turns in beating him before searching his home and destroying his computers and other equipment.
He said they punched him on the face and around his head several times.