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.
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