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| Sunday, 16 June 2002 |
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Acid-throwing incident : ball in Attorney General's court by JAYAMPATHY JAYASINGHE The Kandy Police investigating the acid-throwing incident on Lalith Abanwela, an officer from the Auditor General's Department who was seriously injured in the attack in Kandy will seek the advice of the Attorney General's dept. to file plaint against the 23 suspects allegedly involved in the incident, Police sources told the "Sunday Observer," recently. The 23 suspects involved in the incident were arrested by the sleuths of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and were later handed over to the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) of the Kandy Police. The suspects were produced before the Kandy Magistrate C. N. Rajapakse who remanded them till investigations were completed. Meanwhile the main suspect from Mawenella responsible for throwing acid on Abanwela surrendered last week to the Kandy Police. The suspect had been evading arrest after the incident. Among the suspects are an accountant, an officer from the Education Department Kandy and a trader who had supplied computers to the Education Department. The motive for throwing acid on Abanwela was due to several fraud cases running into several million of rupees being exposed by the Auditor Generals Department. Investigations reveal that the Education Department officials had connived with the trader from Kandy to throw acid on Ambanwela as the latter had exposed several frauds in the Education Department. The incident happened while Ambanwela was driving in the Kandy town, the suspect travelling in a three wheeler had intercepted his car and had thrown acid on him. The CID team later located the boutique in Mawanella where the suspect had purchased the acid which was thrown on the victim. Meanwhile the Committee on Public Enterprises (CEP) while drawing the attention of Speaker Joseph Michael Perera on the incident had requested him to provide security to the Auditor-General's Department staff to attend to their legitimate duties. The acid throwing incident occurred while the investigation into the fraudulent activities in the Provincial Education Department of the Central Province was on. Mr. Abanwela is still warded at the General Hospital, Kandy. CEP Chairman Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, MP in his letter to the Speaker has requested his intervention to prevent any repetition of this nature in the future and stated that it was not the first time that threats of this nature have been made against the staff of the Auditor-General's department. |
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