Editorial-December 3, 2013,
An underworld figure, known as Ketayam Wasantha, wanted for the killing of a police constable and his wife in Kamburupitya, has died at the hands of the Special Task Force (STF). He is the fourth suspect killed during the last few days. The police say he died in a gun battle.
The police seem hell bent on eliminating criminals rather than crime. An Opposition lawmaker has expressed grave concern about the manner in which suspects in police custody get killed. Successive governments have refrained from resuming judicial executions for political reasons in spite of calls from the victims of crimes for hanging criminals. Last year, a disabled soldier whose young daughter had been raped and killed, offered his services, free of charge, as a hangman at the Welikade Prison. Ironically, governments have no qualms about permitting extrajudicial executions!
Although the physical elimination of criminals in police custody or during manhunts is a matter of serious concern, the ordinary people troubled by the ever increasing crime rate may approve of such action for want of a better alternative. The judicial process is frustratingly tardy and criminals are capable of silencing witnesses by virtue of their wealth and political clout. How vulnerable the law-abiding citizens are in a society where criminals even kill police personnel goes without saying.
The blame for creating a situation where the long arm of the law has to adopt extraordinary, if not extrajudicial, measures to deal with hardcore criminals should be apportioned to successive governments and police bigwigs who have brought their department into this sorry pass over the years. Criminal gangs don’t emerge overnight. Their rise in the nether world of crime is a gradual process. Most of their members have political connections or high ranking police officers in their pocket.
The police, it may be recalled, could not arrest Kudu Lal, a notorious drug dealer in Colombo, because he was protected by some police officers and a minister who finally helped him flee the country. Gonawala Sunil was a UNP strongman who carried out many political killings and attacks on the then Opposition. Another much-dreaded criminal who worked for the UNP was Soththi Upali; he murdered people at will and raped women after dragging them to the Borella Cemetery at night with the police looking the other way. Kaduwela Wasantha, responsible for dozens of murders and attacks on the UNP worked for the SLFP. A serial killer called Beddegana Sanjeewa also did ‘political work’ for the SLFP. Another killer with SLFP connections was Wambotta. All these murderers died violent deaths as they became too embarrassing for their political bosses and fell from grace.
Among our searing exposes during the past several years have been an IGP’s participation at a drug dealer’s bash in a five-star hotel and the provision by Kudu Nauffer, currently serving a jail term for ordering Judge Sarath Ambepitiya’s assassination, of food and beverages for a judicial officers’ function. JVP parliamentary group leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake alleged in Parliament on Monday that someone had abused Prime Minister D. M. Jayaratne’s office to issue a letter seeking the clearance of a container with 250 kg of heroin concealed in cans of grease. The PM has promised to make a statement after the on-going investigations are over.
In 2006, Police Inspector Douglas Nimal, an efficient crime buster, and his wife, Dhammika, were shot dead while they were travelling in a van in Athurugiriya. Sadly, there was no high octane performance on the part of the police at that time. Nimal, too, had served in the East as an STF commando from 1987 to 1996. We reported on the incident extensively and editorially called upon the police top brass and the government to conduct a high level probe and arrest the killers. Sri Lanka Police Inspectors Association fought quite a battle seeking justice, but to no avail. That crime has remained unsolved to date. So much for the selective efficiency of the police!
