The authorities have decided to hold of Harak Kata and Kudu Salindu, two powerful underworld criminals involved in drug trafficking brought to Sri Lanka from Madagascar, under the Prevention of Terrorism Act with the Criminal Investigation Department under the custody.
Police information disclosed that yesterday evening (13) the Inspector General of Police held a special discussion with Mr. Prasad Ranasinghe, Deputy Inspector General of Criminal Investigation Department and Mr. Kavinda Piyasekera, Director of Criminal Investigation Department.
Sources revealed that special attention has been paid to not hand over these two underworld criminals to any investigative team other than the Criminal Investigation Department. But any investigative team will have the opportunity to interrogate these two criminals with prior permission from the Criminal Investigation Department in connection with their investigations. The police information disclosed that the opportunity to question will come with the supervision of the officers of the Criminal Investigation Department.
Special attention of police forces has also been given to pay special attention to the security of Harak Kata and Kudu Salindu. This is because the intelligence agencies have information that Harak Kata and Kudu Salindu have had very close relations with several corrupt officers of the police. Based on the information revealed by the investigations about cattle rustling and drug addiction, the police authorities have focused their attention on conducting future investigations regarding those officers.
On February 12th, 6 underworld criminals, including harak kata and kudu salidu, who went to Madagascar on February 12th in a private jet, were arrested by Madagascar’s security forces on February 1st. That was when they went to the airport to leave Madagascar again. Apart from these underworld criminals, there was a foreign woman who pretended to be Harak Kata’s wife and a man who claimed to be her father.
This group was taken into the custody of the country’s security forces and the country was notified. There, Madagascar’s security forces had expressed their agreement to hand over the cattle rustlers and drug addicts who had been issued red notices by the International Police to Sri Lanka according to international law. Four officers of the Criminal Investigation Department and the Police Special Task Force left the country for Madagascar on the 11th Saturday, and yesterday (13) they had taken a cow and a drug bust into their custody.
Police information disclosed that two police officers from Madagascar are also in the special police team of Sri Lanka bringing the two.
They had been brought from Madagascar to an airport in the Middle East region by a plane belonging to an airline company in an African region. The group had to stay at an airport in the Middle East region for several hours. Sources also revealed that during that time, the harak kata and the kudu Salidu were kept in a security cell near the airport.
The same sources also mentioned that while they were arriving, Harak Kata and Kudu Salindu were trembling with fear and did not think that they would be taken to Sri Lanka. The information further stated that they had even appealed to the officials not to endanger their lives.
It is also said that the mobile phones which were found in their possession by the Madagascar security forces along with two have been handed over to the special police team who left the country with the two of them.
A senior police officer stated that through those mobile phones, it will be possible to bring out the information of Harak Kata and Kudu Salindu’s drug network, as well as the information of many other people who were in contact with them in this country with evidence.