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Did police inaction lead to killing?
By Asif Fuard
A resident living close to the private home of the late Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar in Bullers Lane, had tipped off the Cinnamon Garden's Police that suspicious persons were roaming the area during late hours. This was weeks before an assassin shot him dead as he emerged from his pool after a swim.

The resident wants to remain anonymous for obvious reasons. He told The Sunday Times that a month earlier he had telephoned the Officer-in-Charge of the Cinnamon Gardens Police Station and informed him that two persons were moving around suspiciously. Wearing dark blue jackets and helmets that prevented identification, the two had been there almost every night. They travelled in a Bajaj motorcycle. They were in the vicinity around 1 a.m. and had been spotted by several residents.

The resident said one of the suspicious persons had been seen measuring the Bullers Crescent road. Later, one of them was in the habbit of coming in a motor cycle and dropping a black garbage bag at the doorstep of Mr. Thalayasingham's house. Within an hour, a few persons who came in a van collected the bag, the resident said. The domestic aides and residents who witnessed these events for several days do not want to come out now and relate their stories for fear of reprisals, he said.

I asked the resident what telephone number he rang. He gave me the number and mentioned the name of the Officer-in-charge. "Not even a routine patrol came our way to check on the veracity of what I said. There was no response whatsoever though Police top brass keep saying public co-operation is essential to fight crime," the resident lamented.

I checked with the Cinnamon Gardens Police. The officer in charge is on leave for four days, said an officer. I asked Inspector O.C. Wimalasiri who was acting officer-in-charge whether residents had made representations to the Police. He said, "We usually act according to the statements given by the people. But in this case we never got any statements. But even if we had got such a call, we could not have acted immediately, since we have only a few jeeps patrolling the area. Some people call us for even the slightest thing. That does not mean the entire Police Department should go there."

Acting Director of the Ministerial Security Division (MSD) Upali Kumarasiri said personnel from his organisation were only assigned to provide security cover to ministers and not their private homes. The revelations came as police probing the assassination released most of the suspects arrested for questioning in connection with the slaying of Minister Kadirgamar while continuing their probe without a major breakthrough.

Inspector General of Police Chandra Fernando told The Sunday Times that they had released most of the suspects they had arrested due to insufficient evidence. The Sunday Times learns that 63 people have been arrested out of whom 47 had been released, while the rest are still being detained for further interrogation. But all those arrested were not taken into custody for being directly connected to the slaying.

“We have not arrested anyone as yet, but we have evidence to prove that the LTTE was behind the killing. However we have questioned the neighbours and several other people. We have done several search operations but we were not successful in arresting anyone. So far I have deployed a special team to have a special search operation,” IGP Fernando said.

“We can’t control these kinds of acts alone, we need the support and the co-operation of the general public. When there were suspicious people around the area the neighbours should have been more observant and should have taken a stand by informing this to the police,” the IGP said.

“Earlier we had arrested two people for filming and taking photographs of the area, but none of the neighbours informed us. I am not finding fault with anybody here, but there is a moral obligation for the people in the vicinity to have informed if they saw anything supicious and to be observant” he said.
“The two people we had arrested earlier for filming and taking photographs in front of Mr. Kadirgamar’s house are from the estate sector. We have sufficient reason to believe that they have some links to the killing. I don’t know whether the LTTE has a hold in the estate sector, but we are probing it,” he said.

The owner of the house Lakshman Thalayasingham was released by the police after he was interrogated regarding the incident. Even though he has been released he is under surveillance.

The Sunday Times learns that it was not only one neighbour who had complained to the Cinnamon Gardens police about suspicious looking persons loitering around Mr. Kadirgamar’s private residence. Some other neighbours too had observed two persons measuring the Bullers Crescent area, the road adjoining Mr. Kadirgamar’s residence. As the probe continues the officials involved in the investigation have carried out a detailed analysis on the available evidence.

The Special Task Force (STF) was the first to move into the residence of Mr. Thalayasingham to carry out their search operation. STF Chief Nimal Lewke told The Sunday Times that according to preliminary investigations and analysis of the available evidence, detailed planning had gone in before the assassination was carried out.

He said that from the weapon selected for the assassination to the other preparations made, it was a clear indication that they had prepared for months to take on the target.

“One of the examples is that the gunman waited for Mr. Kadirgamar to come out of the pool so that he could have a broader picture of the target. Instead of attempting to take the target while in the pool, they waited until he came out,” he said.

“It is obvious that Mr. Kadirgamar would have come closer to the gunman when he was swimming upwards in the pool in the direction toward’s Thalayasingham’s residence. But the gunman took the target at the other end of the pool, when Mr. Kadirgamar came out,” the STF chief said.

Investigators believe that a Chinese built 7.62 mm silenced sub-machine gun had been used along with rimless cartridges which gives the ability to fire automatically, Mr. Lewke said. The weapon was believed to be fitted with a bigger barrel in order to fit the silencer, he said.

Mr. Lewke said they believed that the assassins also fired a grenade using a launcher to make sure that their mission was accomplished or to delay the injured minister being taken to hospital.

However, the grenade had hit the security mesh protecting Mr. Kadirgamar’s residence and fallen on the road. He said that it had not exploded as it had not travelled a minimum distance of 26 ft required to explode.

The 40 mm grenade launcher detected later abandoned in a shrub was Singapore manufactured. Even the use of a sports bag (in which the food items were found) is a clear indication that they had studied the surroundings as many sports men and women move in that area with similar sports bags.
The STF during their search operation had located a rigiform box which had been used to smuggle in the weapon for the assassination.

The rigiform box had been neatly cut in a manner that the dismantled weapon could be placed. The rigiform had been carved out to ensure that the barrel of the gun fitted in and the weapon could be placed without arousing suspicion even if they were checked on the road. The box had then been placed into an empty cardboard box of a fan to give the impression that it was parts of a dismantled fan and then transported to the location, No 42, Bullers lane from where Minister Kadirgamar was targeted.

The box was not the only item left behind to give indications of the meticulous planning which had gone into carrying out the assassination.During the search operation on the upper floor, a cricket bag bearing the names of Lalith Authulathmudali Maha Vidyalaya, Ratmalana and national cricketer Russel Arnold was located. The bag contained chocolates, cheese, fruit cakes, murukku and bottles of water.

Investigators have found that the bag was purchased four days before the assassination from a shop in Dehiwala. A CID team has also recorded statements from the school concerned, but initial investigations have revealed there is no link that the school could have provided the bag.

As the STF team continued their search, six aluminum pipes and hacksaw blades which had been used to assemble the tripod on which the weapon was mounted were located in the room indicating that the tripod with a seat for the gunman was assembled on the upper floor.

The gunman and accomplices had also made use of the ceiling area which had a space of about two feet. Two pillows, an empty coca cola bottle and a rope used to descend from the ceiling were also found. The gunman, believed to have been accompanied by another, had escaped from the rear door of the bottom floor from where they had scaled the wall and jumped into the back garden.

Police investigators believe that domestic aides who worked at Mr. Thalayasingham’s residence were linked ‘directly or indirectly’ to the assassination. Some of these domestics have been tracked down and questioned while a search is on for others.

Meanwhile The Sunday Times learns that police are also checking the bank accounts of Mr. Thalayasingham and the bank accounts of two of his brothers who are living in Britain. Among the funds probed was the transfer of 18,000 Pounds from UK to a local resident’s foreign currency account. A CID team yesterday questioned Mr. Thalayasingham about the bank accounts, police sources said.

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