Theft of radio equipment worth millions:

Three Naval officers held

by Jayampathy JAYASINGHE

Three Naval officers and a civilian were taken in for questioning by a team of policemen from the Harbour police crime branch following the theft of expensive communication and radio equipment worth millions of rupees from 11 boats anchored in the Mutwal sea last week, Police Media Spokesman SSP Ajith Rohana told the Sunday Observer.

On a tip off by the Intelligence wing of the Navy, 11 boats that were to be used by human traffickers to ferry Sri Lankan asylum seekers to Australia illegally were seized following the raid.

The boats fitted with expensive commutation systems and radio equipment were later handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for further investigations. Following the court order the boats were handed over to the Navy to be anchored in the Mutwal sea until the human trafficking racket was investigated by the CID.

The Harbour police had received a complaint from the OIC Naval base at Mutwal regarding the theft of communication and radio equipment fitted to the boats on September 18.

A team of policemen led by Sub Inspector Weeraratne Silva, OIC Crimes of the Harbour police investigated the complaint and took in for questioning three Naval officers and a civilian allegedly involved in the theft and recovered the communication and radio equipment that had been dumped in the sea.

Another three Naval officers allegedly involved in the theft are evading arrest, police said. The three Naval officers and the civilian who were arrested were produced in court and remanded till November 10 until investigations are completed, police said.