Sleeping with the enemy

Clandestine activities of a Police Inspector

The police department had no clue whatsoever of a suspected mole operating within its ranks unnoticed by anyone. The unmasking of a Police Inspector stationed at the Police College Kalutara as a suspected LTTE informer last week was a shocking revelation to authorities. The arrest sent ripples among senior police officers and the Defense establishment especially at a time when the Colombo City and its suburbs were under seige by terrorists attempting to wreck havoc in the country.

Ostensibly the officer concerned is suspected to have passed secret information to the enemy regarding armed service personnel and other data regarding important locations vulnerable to attacks as the suspect had easy access to such information. No one in the department ever believed or suspected of his clandestine activity an informer for a shadowy organisation. In fact no one had an inkling of his activities until unmasked by Modera and Grandpass police last week.

The suspected spying activity of the Inspector was disclosed when a team police officers from Modera police acting on a tip off from the Grandpass police raided a communication shop at Redbanawatte at Aluth Mawatha last week. The communication centre was located on the third floor of a three storied building.

When the police forced opened the door and was searching its premises the top LTTE cadre who ran the communication centre detonated a powerful bomb that ripped through its building killing instantly himself and a young policeman and injuring scores of other policewomen who had taken part on the raid. Although such incidents were a common occurrence and was confined to operational areas of North and the East we hardly hear of such things here except for occasional isolated incidents. The incident however put Colombo on red alert.

It was a clear indication to police that the LTTE had stockpiled high explosives in a number of such locations in Colombo and its suburbs. It all began with the Grandpass police when they arrested a top LTTE cadre and recovered several suicide kits and a haul of explosives and weapons in his possession. A few days ago on search operations in Colombo and in Wattala area police and army personnel recovered suicide jackets and explosives material following the arrest of persons in these areas.

However under intense interrogation the suspected LTTE cadre spilled the beans and revealed the name of the police Inspector who had close ties with a top LTTE cadre who ran the communication centre at Modera, Redbanawatte. He even told police that he too had a close association with the Inspector concerned.

Subsequent inquiries done by the Modera police had unravelled suspected clandestine activity of the Inspector. In the course of investigation it revealed that the Inspector had visited the Communication Centre on a number of occasions and met the LTTE cadre to discuss various issues.

He had cultivated a close relationship with him. He had also travelled with him to Kilinochchi and probably met some LTTE cadres and discussed strategy to be worked out in Colombo. However due to the sensitive nature of the investigation the police are tight lipped to leak any information to the media. As the dossier on the suspect contained criminal issues that warranted the arrest of the suspect.

Meanwhile the Modera Police after forwarding its report to the police hierarchy decided to arrest him as he posed a security threat to the country.

However the matter was entrusted to the Special Task Force (STF) to apprehend him.

The suspect Police Inspector was attached to the Police College Kalutara at the time of his arrest last week. He was on his way to Akkaripattu to attend to some matter when a team of Special Task Officers (STF) swooped on him and took him into custody at Maha-Oya.

According to police sources the suspect is a native of Eastern province who had served at the Akkaripattu police station some time ago.

It was most likely that he was recruited to the LTTE wing while being stationed there, a senior police officer told the "Sunday Observer" on conditions of anonymity. He said while the suspect was stationed at Maligawatte Police Station some time ago they suspected him to have monitored the movements of senior armed service officers residing at the Maligawatte housing complex.

The police area investigating whether he had planted a claymore in connivance with terrorist cadres on the road to the hosing complex where senior officers travelled daily. However the claymore mine failed to explode a few years ago.

It was also rumoured the suspect Inspector on an earlier occasion had planted a claymore mine in the vicinity of the housing complex where senior military personnel reside and later tipped off the police hierarchy for which he was handsomely rewarded.

However according to the Police Media Spokesman Senior DIG Illangakon the suspect Inspector had totally denied the allegations levelled against him and was being further investigated by several police teams.

The suspect officer had served the police department for nearly 20 years.