White Van Death Squad exposed;
police suspect political conspiracy to discredit Defence Secretary
defence
Police sleuths of Colombo Crime Division (CCD) inquiring into a complaint
lodged by a restaurant owner have identified 4 suspects who may be involved
with controversial "White Van" incidents. According to the
police sources the suspects include two police personnel of Ministerial
Security Division (MSD) and two civilians having close connections with
the opposition party politicians. Police further suspect a possible
politically backed conspiracy in this incident to bring discredit to
the present secretary of defence.
According to the CCD sources, the owner of a restaurant had lodged
a complaint at the police station Dehiwala that an armed gang calling
themselves to be in the security detail of Defence Secretary Gotabaya
Rajapaksa had attacked his restaurant on 29 July 2008. The complaint
further said that the gang had arrived in a white coloured van.
According to the details uncovered by the police so far, the gang of
four arrived at a family restaurant named The Station, at No 41/1, Wasala
Para, Dehiwala, around 10 PM on Tuesday (July 29) . The gang ordered
hard liquor and remained there till about 11.10 PM when the restaurant
staff requested them to foot the bill. At that time, the gang started
beating the staff members and damaging the properties of the restaurant.
One of the gang members identifying him as sergeant Kaluarachchi drew
a pistol and threatened one of the staff members holding it against
his ear that he would be killed at once. Then they terrorised the guests
and the staff shouting loudly that they were "men of Gotabaya Rajapaksa"
and also robbed 11,500 rupees from the cashier and they made off in
the White Van they had come. The restaurant owner complained that the
gang had caused a damage amounting to 19,600 rupees.
Later, the police traced the vehicle and found out that it was one
of the cabs belonging to a call cab service called City Cabs. Then,
the police traced the driver of the vehicle on the day of the attack
and upon his arrest the four main suspects were taken into custody .
The suspects have been identified as Police Sergeant, U.L.W Jayakody
Wijerathne, no 52669 , Police Constable, S.M.C.P Sakalasooriya , no
37012, J.A Sudarshana Jayasinghe, a civilian and Subaideen Saknus ,
a civilian .
While questioning the suspects, police have found that it was Sergeant
Jayakodi Wijerathne who had identified him as Sergeant Kaluarachchi
and led the attack. Also, it was he who had wielded the pistol and called
the gang to be the men of Gotabaya. Interestingly , police have found
that this suspects is working in the personal security detail of Kurunegala
district United National Party (UNP) MP, Akila Viraj. Also, it was found
that MP Akila Viraj had personally requested the accused Sergent Wijerathne
for his security detail from the MSD, as Wijerathne was well known to
him, as they had been classmates.
Police Constable, S.M.C.P Sakalasooriya, the other police personnel
allegedly involved in the incident have found to be a member of the
personal security detail of leader of the opposition and UNP MP , Ranil
Wickramasinghe. He has been in MP Wickramasinghe's security detail since
2002 when the MP was the Prime Minister of the country.
The two civilian suspects were also identified as two henchmen of opposition
party politicians. The suspects have been remanded until 15th August,
and to be produced before an identification parade.
Police having considered how the whole incident had transpired and
the developments going on at the political spheres suspect a possible
politically backed conspiracy in the incident. Police are in the view
that the malefactors had not carried out the attack under influence
of liquor but with the good knowledge of what they had been doing. Particularly,
Sergeant Jayakodi Wijerathne had his sense to pose him as Sergeant Kaluarachchi
and to show that attack as one that had been carried out by the personal
security guards of the Secretary of Defence. Also, police says that
if the sole intention of the attackers was to rob money from the restaurant
, it is obvious that they could have chosen some other way to identify
themselves than identifying with the MSD, which has only handful of
members.
Hence, police say that the attackers had acted in malice to bring discredit
to Defence Secretary and his personal security squad. Had the police
failed to nab the malefactors, the incident could have been easily exploited
by the pro LTTE media and slanderous newspapers sponsored by political
parties to carryout character assassination campaign against the Defence
Secretary and the security forces personnel as well. Possible political
conspiracy to engineer a scandal against Defence Secretary Gotabaya
Rajapaksa cannot be ruled out, the police added.
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