Slow follow-up action on Scotland Yard help

From Neville de Silva in London

Despite the initial urgency in soliciting the assistance of Britain's Scotland Yard to probe the Raviraj assassination, help is not forthcoming yet because of Colombo's delay in sending the terms and conditions required by the Metropolitan Police, it is reliably understood.

A four-member team from the Metropolitan Police homicide and serious crime division is ready to fly to Colombo to help the local police in uncovering those responsible for the killing and building a scientific case against the suspects. But the London Police require a memorandum of understanding to be agreed first so that they are quite clear what is expected of them and where they stand with regard to the investigation.

Without such an agreement the Metropolitan Police will not make a move since its reputation is at stake. Scotland Yard had helped the Sri Lanka police at least on two previous occasions in the past 15 years or more. They were in connection with the assassinations of Lalith Athulathmudali and then president Ranasinghe Premadasa.

Even on those occasions the terms and conditions of assistance had to be settled before help was forthcoming, according to knowledgeable sources. The Scotland Yard team led by a superintendent includes forensic experts. But the delay in their starting investigations due to the absence until now of an MoU is only making the scientific part of the investigations more difficult, experts here said."The crime scene by now has surely been disturbed and quite possibly valuable evidence destroyed or obliterated," one of them said.

The team is expected to spend ten days in Colombo. Sri Lanka will have to provide air fare - -possibly business class tickets -- and hotel expenses for the team. It is understood that the Metropolitan Police would probably charge a fee of £20,000 for its services.
Meanwhile, in Colombo the Government Analyst’s Department was awaiting the investigators to hand over the weapon which was recovered close to the scene of Mr. Raviraj’s assassination.

Government Analyst E. Somapala told The Sunday Times they had been carrying out the investigation on the vehicle and they were now waiting till the CID provided them with the weapon which was used in the assassination. More than 200 statements including that of Mr. Raviraj’s driver who was on leave on the day of the incident have been recorded.
The CID is also hunting for the MP’s domestic aide who had taken leave and gone to her village.