Following President’s directive:

Four-pronged operation against crime

by L. S. Ananda WEDAARACHCHI

Police have launched a four-pronged operation to prevent crime on a directive by President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said IGP Jayantha Wickramaratna.

The police chief told the Sunday Observer that the President had instructed him to make use of the same resources used to eradicate LTTE terrorism to deal with crime.

According to the IGP the program to eradicate crime aims at four main areas namely organised crime, day to day unorganised crime, illicit liquor and narcotics and traffic crime. DIGs and SSPs have been given all powers to eradicate all such crimes, he said.

“Public cooperation in this regard is essential. It is obligatory on the part of the public to provide information on crime to the police. Such information could be communicated direct to the IGP (fax 011-2446174) DIGs, SSPs local police stations or police headquarters (011-2421111).

The informants would be rewarded and their identity would be withheld, the IGP said.Two notorious criminal gangs operating in Kandy and Colombo were nabbed recently by the police crimes investigation divisions in Kandy and Colombo led by Senior DIG Kandy Pujitha Jayasundara DIG Crimes Anura Senanayake and Director in charge of Colombo Crimes Vas Gunawardena, the IGP said.

“These criminal gangs had allegedly extorted money from businessmen, politicians and high-ranking public officials. The kandy gang leader had been a convict in the Kandy prison. His modus operandi, according to the police had been to operate a ring of notorious criminals outside the prison with the connivance of a prison officer to extort large sums of money from Tamil businessmen.

It is alleged that these businessmen had been threatened that their names were in the list of LTTE supporters.

The IGP said that the police had found that the money extorted had been invested in a private bank account in Wattegama under the name of the prison officer’s daughter.

The suspect prison officer, his daughter and three other suspects have been taken into custody by the police.

The Colombo gang leader, a notorious convict in the Welikada prison had mobilised the services of another set of notorious criminals to extort money from leading businessmen in Colombo and the suburbs, senior public officials, provincial politicians and MPs. The gang had demanded money and threatened them with death. All leaders and the members of the gang have been taken into custody.

One notorious criminal was killed when he resisted arrest. The IGP said that people should respect basic traffic rules and regulations which are unfortunately ignored by some people. The number of deaths due to fatal accidents has increased sharply in the recent months and it has to be minimised in the interest of road users. Drunken drivers and traffic offenders will be dealt with severely in the future, the IGP said.