A complaint has been filed with the Keselwatta Police by the Court Registrar following a bizarre incident involving a stock of expensive imported liquor that had been presented to the Colombo Magistrate’s Court as case material.

The Lankadeepa newspaper reports that the liquor, which was scheduled to be destroyed, was discovered to have ‘transformed’ into what appeared to be tea or discoloured water.

The suspicious change was detected just before the destruction process, which was to be carried out under the supervision of court officials on the orders of Colombo Additional Magistrate Pasan Amarasena. The stock included 81 bottles of foreign liquor and 150 bottles of beer.

The discrepancy came to light when officials broke open 17 of the bottles for inspection and found that the contents no longer resembled alcohol. Following this discovery, the Magistrate ordered all bottles to be sealed and taken into court custody.

The Court Registrar has requested the Keselwatta Police to launch an investigation into the matter, specifically how and when the ‘transformation’ occurred, and whether there was any tampering involved.

The Magistrate’s Court has also instructed the Keselwatta OIC to carry out a formal inquiry into the incident.