A special investigation has been started in relation to Police officers who had telephone contact with Nadun Chinthaka Wickramaratne alias ‘Harak Kata’, an organized criminal and large-scale smuggler who is detained and interrogated by the Criminal Investigation Department.
Sources at the Police headquarters state that on the instructions of Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP) Deshabandu Tennakoon, investigations have been started by the Special Investigation Unit.
It has been revealed that the majority of the accused are Police officers of various ranks in the Southern Province.
Police sources state that this was revealed during the investigations conducted after the arrest of ‘Harak Kata’ by the Police, but after the attention of the Acting IGP Deshabandu Tennakoon, regarding the lack of proper investigation, the relevant instructions have been given to initiate a special investigation.
While ‘Harak Kata’ was abroad and arrested, did those Police officers have direct or indirect relations with the drug network he led by receiving various rewards? If not, the attention of the officers of the Special Investigation Unit has been focused on whether facilities were provided to his followers and in addition to this, they are also going to look into the property, vehicles and assets bought using the names of other people with the bribe money received by the accused police officers.
Along with the unexpected arrest of ‘Harak Kata’ by the Police, some of the police officers who have been charged, have given various reasons and left voluntarily obtaining transfers even to extremely remote areas before the completion of their service, according to police sources.
Bimal Jayasinghe