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| Sunday, 6 February 2005 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Red light on 'porn' Crime Sunday by Jaympathy Jayasinghe It was noon time and the sun was scorchingly hot. The sweltering heat did not deter people going about their business in the dusty and congested streets of Pettah. Some were in a mighty hurry scurrying off some places while others, mostly young men and school children were nonchalantly perusing magazines and tabloids on display at a news stand in Pettah. While all this was happening five policemen in civvies were hanging around near a boutique near the central bus stand. They kept an eye on a news stand close by. In fact the police hierarchy had received several petitions regarding the sale of obscene tabloids at news stands in Pettah area. Persons interested in vulgar tabloids can purchase them from news stands. Several such tabloids and magazines have sprung up in our news stands during the past few years. These allegations led the police hierarchy to investigate the matter. They sent several police decoys to news stands in Pettah to ascertain the genuineness of these complaints. The decoys reported back that obscene tabloids were being sold in Pettah news stands. In fact several traders quite openly were engaged in selling them to customers. A few years back the police raided these news stands and seized several such obscene publications. However hawkers have bounced back due to its lucrative business. There was a steady demand for such pornographic literature in Sri Lanka. Youths and elderly persons were addicted to it, police say. They say that these lewd publications are meant to corrupt the minds of the young and the old alike. The tabloids are being written by experienced ghost journalists to rouse the passions and excitement of persons. However the police have not been successful in tracing the authors who subscribe to them. It is because the work is done in utmost secrecy. They have also failed to trace the secret printing presses where these tabloids are printed. Last week the OIC Vigitha Perera and Sub Inspector Subasinghe of the Police Central Anti-Vice Striking Unit at Panadura sent a decoy to the Pettah Central Bus stand to purchase an obscene magazine with a marked fifty rupee note. He was instructed to signal the police raiding party when the purchase was made. The Central Anti-Vice Striking Unit functions directly Under IGP Chandra Fernando and is supervised by Director (SSP), D.A. Fonseka, ASP's Jayantha Perera and D. Ranaweera. Last Monday Pettah area was a busy place with shoppers milling around pavement vendors, searching for merchandise. While all these were happening five policemen from the Anti-Central Vice Squad took up position near a tea kiosk close to a news stand after despatching their decoy. They were eagerly awaiting a signal from the decoy to raid the place. The police decoy in mufti boldly walked towards the news stand with the marked fifty rupee note and asked for a copy of "Sanasuma" priced Rs. 50. The unsuspecting news stand vendor then pulled out a copy of the 'Sanasuma' from under his table and gave it to the decoy after accepting the money. After the transaction was over the police decoy sent the pre-arranged signal by waving his hand to his colleagues standing near a tea kiosk close by. The policemen were now ready to go for the kill. They sprang into action and rushed towards the newspaper stand. Having searched the news stand they recovered a pile of obscene tabloid magazines under different names. The following lewd Sinhala tabloids were found concealed under the newsstand. There were 1385 copies of SEEDEVI, MADUSARA-1797, SADAMINA-590, PIYAWEE-104, RASANGI-26, RUE-43, SANASUMA-24, SANDHA RATHRI-24, SARAA-SANDU-4, SARAWINA-4, SONDURA-5, SURAYA-32, ASSHRI-49, all obscene tabloids. There were almost 4000 copies worth Rs. 200,000. The person who was manning the news stand was taken into custody following the raid. He was handed over to the Keselwatte police to be produced in Courts. On the same day the Police Central Anti-Vice Striking Unit, raided a shop in Keyzer Street in Pettah and seized 400 Compact Discs (CD) and Video Compact Discs (VCD) of pirated copies of several Sinhala films and songs. They also seized 2900 illegally printed labels of CD and VCD from the same shop. Four persons were arrested following the raid. They too were handed over to the Keselwatte police to be produced in Court. |
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