Easter Sunday attacks: suspicions about former intelligence chief who obstructed investigations!

The Defence Ministry had instructed the CID to investigate a former intelligence chief who had obstructed the investigations being carried out into the Easter Sunday bombings, a Senior Defence Ministry official told Sri Lanka Mirror.

When the Wellampitiya Police had gone to raid the copper factory belonging to the suicide bomber who carried out the Cinnamon Grand Hotel bombing, this senior retired intelligence officer had called the Wellampitiya police and asked, “Why did you’ll raid that place? Now did you find anything? You did not find anything.”

The Wellampitiya Police had complained to the Police Headquarters that this is totally unacceptable behaviour.

Investigations have revealed that this retired police officer had maintained close ties with Imran Haji who is currently in police custody.

It has also been revealed that this senior police officer had maintained close ties with a relative of Saharan, Hashim from Kaththankudy, the office who gave us information said.

According to the Police Headquarters Special Investigations Unit, the Colombo Crimes Division Acting Director SP Udaya Hemantha and three other officers had been questioned for around eight hours over the releasing on bail of the nine suspects arrested at the copper factory belonging to the suspected suicide bomber Mohommed Ibrahim Insaf Ahmed in Wellampitiya.

The other two police officers are the Wellampitiya SP Vidura Jayasinghe and Wellampitiya Police OIC of the Crimes Branch IP Piyal Gunatillake.

The ten suspects at the Copper factory were arrested in a joint search operation by the Wellampitiya Police and the Colombo Crimes Division.

Nine of them were released as the police had not submitted adequate evidence to court to justify the rejection of their bail applications.