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Underhand operations under cover?
Internal battle in Police over drug war
By Asif Fuard
There appears to be a battle within the battle waged by authorities to crack down on drugs and drug king-pins, with some police officers charging that their work is being hampered by high-ranking officers. These officers including inspectors have asked Police Chief Chandra Fernando to look into these complaints.

An inspector speaking on anonymity to The Sunday Times said they faced a lot of harassment from officers of the Colombo Crime Division as they interfered in their line of work. “They constantly get involved in our cases and the local police stations find it hard to crack a case. Sometimes the CCD officers don’t allow officers from the local police station to get involved in undercover operations,” he alleged.

He said there were instances where CCD officers carried out raids on the same ‘crime scenes’ where local police officers were involved in undercover operations and the confusion or the cross currents led to situations where the local undercover operatives were arrested by CCD officers.

He cited an incident which he claimed eventually ended in six officers who were involved in an undercover operation being arrested by the CCD on December 28. The officers included Inspectors Anura Silva (Borella), Douglas Nimal (Dematagoda), RSI S. Pushpakumara, PC C. Mervin, PC Kithsiri and RPC Zoysa.

He claimed the six police officers were asked to come to the CCD to give a statement after a woman named Zulfaha from Dematagoda had implicated them as having links with a drug king-pin of her area-known as “Kosala”. The inspector claims that the woman was a notorious small-time drug peddler. As soon as the six officers reached the CCD office in Dematagoda they had been stripped of their uniforms and remanded, he said.

However, The Sunday Times learns that this same woman had implicated another inspector, S. Kalansuriya over another case and this inspector was interdicted by the Police Department after the Bribery Commission investigated and found him guilty of taking bribes. He was later arrested.

The drug dealer Kosala had given a statement accusing Ispector Douglas of receiving Rs. 6000 a month from him. However questions have arisen after the CCD failed to arrest Kosala, a wanted man.

The Sunday Times was told that Inspector Douglas Nimal had helped trackdown a record number of more than 300 drug dealers in Colombo last year alone. He had also been the mastermind behind the crackdown of a heroin haul valued over Rs. four million.

A week before Inspector Douglas was arrested he had carried out an operation to bust one of Sri Lanka’s biggest drug lords “Guna” from the Kimbula Ella area of Modara. He had apparently succeeded in netting two of Guna’s cronies who reportedly had Rs. 2 million worth of heroin in their possession.

These six police officers allege they had been framed on false charges and they had been arrested solely because some senior police officers held a grudge against them. The Sunday Times was told about an incident which had led to a clash between CCD officers and some of Inspector Douglas’s men during an operation to track down a drug dealer. Ispector Douglas had been assigned to arrest drug dealer,“Junda” who had shot a rival drug dealer’s brother. When the inspector had tried to arrest Junda who was armed, he had reportedly run towards some CCD officers who were on a routine patrol.

The CCD officers had reportedly not allowed Inspector Douglas to arrest Junda, who was wanted for drug dealing, robbery and several killings, but instead was himself arrested by the CCD officers. The inspector had made a statement against the CCD officers for obstructing him from carrying out his duties.

When the case was taken up at the Maligakanda Magistrates Court the Magistrate had ordered CCD Director Sarath Lugoda to produce the accused Junda before Courts. But the Senior Superintendent had told the Courts that there was no such person in police custody.

When The Sunday Times questioned SSP Lugoda over the incident involving Inspector Douglas he said, “We were carrying out a special operation to arrest one of Sri Lanka’s most wanted men. But the operation failed because Inspector Douglas obstructed our duty”.

Meanwhile IGP Chandra Fernando claimed he was not aware of any allegations of harassment but a special inquiry would be held over the arrest of the six police officers.

“I am unaware of any internal politics in the department”, he said.
The six officers who went on a death fast on being refused to meet the Attorney General, have now been transferred from the Colombo remand prison to four different detention centres, The Sunday Times learns. They will be produced again at the Maligakanda Magistrate’s Court on Thursday and the Magistrate has directed the CCD to produce evidence against the six officers.

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