Breakthrough of CCTV evolution of Sri Lanka

We are in an age of Closed-circuit TV or CCTV, yes, in Sri Lanka too. Big Brother is looking at you.

Last week saw a major breakthrough in CCTV evolution in Sri Lanka.

In one incident a Chicago type Rs. 7.5 million robbery was filmed in Hollywood style by CCTV camera. Sadly, the 55-year-old  victim passed away days after of a heart attack. The money he had withdrawn was to be used for his daughter's wedding.He was followed right from the bank and the story of the bank's CCTV camera is yet to be revealed.

The other incident was treacherous. A man contracted to kill another man whom he was indebted millions of rupees. They ate together and drove off to the trap laid by killers. The contracted killers took the victim away. The man who gave the contract drew the car off to desert it somewhere. Later he was posing as desperately looking for his friend. He was caught red-handed when a CCTV camera of a house near the roadside where he deserted the car showed him slip away after parking the car there.

Interestingly but essentially not unexpectedly, the contract killers have been the members of  security staff of a senior Deputy Inspector General.

An Indian who was to be disappeared in Sri Lanka found killed

(June 28, 2010, Colombo - Lanka Polity) An Inspector of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) was arrested by police as he, in connivance with a Colombo businessman dumped a body of a slain Indian national in Munadalama in Puttlam district in Northwestern Province of Sri Lanka.

The suspected CID officer, reported Chandana Silva and Colombo 06, Big Banana restaurant owner Mariyanayagam Lesley Rajakumar have allegedly killed an Indian national aged 24 and named Thennarasu Selvakumar who worked under latter as a cook in a house in Wellawaththa. Later, the duo have brought the dead body to Mundalama in a double cab vehicle and dumped it into the sea.

Residents that saw these suspicious men throwing a suspicious parcel into sea, informed Puttlam police and the police without knowledge that a CID officer is involved in the crime blocked roads and arrested the suspects.

Meanwhile, the wife of one of the suspected murderers, Ms. Rajakumar lodged a complaint in police that their cook was missing.

A young man that was originally ill-fated to be one disappeared in Sri Lanka was 'lucky' to be found dead and to be ruled murdered at the post-mortem.

Why did these killers choose Palliwasapaduwa beach of Mukkuthuduwawa in Mundalama for dumping the dead body? How many times has this police officer done this kind of acts, previously? Are their more officials that do such things?

The answers my friend, is blowing in the wind.

Or else, let us talk about the Sinhala-Tamil unity at least in crime. Can the dead man be an early victim of CEPA?


You may also like to visit our Sinhala Blog W3Lanka

No liquor policy of Sri Lanka increases state revenue

(September 24, Colombo - Lanka Polity) "Fullstop to alcohols," a policy of the President of Sri Lanka, has opened new revenues to the cash-strapped government, according to the police chief of the state.

Inspector General of Police Jayantha Wickramaratna says that the police conducted 17639 raids within the last two years and the fines imposed to the culprits were well over US $ 260,000.

Sri Lanka state imposes over 100% excise on all kinds of alcohol. However, home-brewed illegal spirits can be purchased from all nooks and corners of the island despite regular raids of the police and excise officials.

Sri Lanka polity on the verge of the limit of bearing police atrocities

(August 15, 2009 - Lanka Polity) Sri Lankan polity seems at the brink of the limit of the patience on the ongoing spate of police atrocities.

On August 13, Angulana police station situated around 10 km south of Colombo was attacked by the residents of the area following the recovery of the bodies of two youths that were arrested the previous day in relation to an incident of indecency towards a woman.

The two victims, Dhanushka Udaya Kumara (21) and Dinesh Tharanga (27) were the residents of houses close to Angulana Cooperative Shop. The mother of Dinesh Tharanga, Devika Vinifreeda says that she visited her son and his friend that were in police custody in the night of August 12th. However, when she went to visit them again in the following morning, the officers had told her that the suspects were released.

The police spokesman Ranjith Gunasekara said that there are no entries regarding the said arrest in police files. A spokesman of Mount Lavinia police station said to Dinamina newspaper that the suspects had been the members of an underworld gang and they might have been killed by a rival gang. However, on August 14, the same Mount Lavinia police produced five suspects including the Officer-in -Charge of Angulana police station in the magistrate court with a B report related to homicide.

The bodies of the two youths were later recovered with gunshots near a bridge located close to Angulana police station and on the railway line. The angry residents of the area attacked the police station with clubs and stones injuring officials including the Officer-in-Charge T.M.D. Newton. Police Department later transferred the officials to other stations.

Before the public protest mounted the Police Department attempted to transfer the officials and to close the file of this brutal murder. Transferring of junior officials is the only action taken against the police offenders in Sri Lanka in recent times. In another incident, five police officials of the Colombo Crime Division were also transferred with regard to an incident of torture of a student of an IT campus in Malabe, around 20 kilometers away from the capital city.

the student, Nipuna Ramanayaka, was severely tortured by the wife and a offspring of the director of the Colombo Crime Division SSP Vaas Gunasekara. At the moment of the writing, the media reported that SSP Vaas Gunawardhana had been transferred to Police Headquarters with immediate effect. No action against the police officer's wife and son has been taken so far despite repeated questioning of the media.

Meanwhile, the alleged police officer is accused of staging a drama of recovering a suspected Tamil Tiger van laden with large amounts of explosives. Another senior police officer who is in charge of the area the recovery was made has challenged that the said recovery is a farce. Media accuses that SSP Vaas Gunawardhana staged this drama to cover from disgrace caused by the allegations against his wife and son that are publicly enjoying impunity.

Recently, Sri Lankan Minister of Human Rights Mahinda Samarasinghe spoke of police actions violating human rights of one of his staff members that was arrested in an illegal manner with weapons.

Most of the police arrests in Sri Lanka violate the law and can be categorized as abductions. No warrants are produced; suspects are not explained the causes for the arrests and no receipts are issued to the families in accordance with Presidential directions. The IT student who was tortured by the police family says that the police threatened him to be killed alleging him to be a member of an underworld gang.

Police often gun down the suspected underworld goons and say that they attempted to escape whilst they were taken to show the hidden weapons.

Human rights organizations allege that the government's measures to suppress the underworld have opened wide space for police atrocities. Summary killings of underworld figures in the guise of opening fire at them as they attempt to escape save the persons that give contracts to the underworld.

Sri Lanka police officer abducts and tortures an IT student due to enmity with his son

(August 06, 2009 - Lanka Polity) A student of Sri Lanka's IT campus in Malabe says that he was tortured by police due to an enmity with an offspring of a senior police official. The offspring is also a student of the same campus.

The victim Nipuna Ramanayaka of Rathnapura says that a police team abducted him and took him to the house of the Director of the Colombo Crime Division Vaas Gunawardhana. Ramanayaka said while being treated for injuries in National Hospital that he was beaten by the wife of the above mentioned police officer, the son of the police officer who is also a student of the university and by others. They even uprooted his hair and beard and made him to eat them, the student said. A similar act took place in the incident of abduction and assault of the Working Journalists' Association Secretary Poddala Jayantha.

Later, the parents found the student in Dematagoda police station. The victim says that police threatened him to link him to the underworld and to commit a summary killing.

(Photo courtesy of Lanka E News)

Pressure mounting on Sri Lanka government to hold the operation against underworld

(August 05, 2009 - Lanka Polity) The operations of Sri Lanka state against the underworld goons has come under severe pressure from the government politicians as the hand has stretched 'too far' to the official staffs of the Ministers.

A prominent Minister who is eying to the foreign affairs job is now talking about human rights following one of the members of his personal staff was taken into custody with weapons due to links with the underworld.

Another Minister who is ill-famous for his notoriety had to accompany a well known drug dealer via VIP exit to board in a flight to England and had to stay in the aeroplane till it was ready to take off to save the life of his companion.

Sources say that the Ministers are pointing out to the leaders that they will need these underworld goon to run election campaigns. However, reliable sources say that the leaders are unable to hold the operation since they cannot get the officials that lead it bowed to political influence.

Meanwhile, many underworld goons are killed as they are fired at by police when they are try to escape as accused in the middle of the night as they accompany police to show the weapon caches.

Some other underworld goons are killed on streets by unknown persons.