Police have launched an investigation to ascertain whether an Assistant Superintendent attached to the Ministerial Security Division (MSD) made a wrongful arrest of three British students who did not violate any Sri Lankan law. The arrest has been made when the university students had gone to West Indian cricketer Chris Gayle’s room on the seventh [...]

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Gayle’s girls: President no-balls ASP

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Police have launched an investigation to ascertain whether an Assistant Superintendent attached to the Ministerial Security Division (MSD) made a wrongful arrest of three British students who did not violate any Sri Lankan law.

The arrest has been made when the university students had gone to West Indian cricketer Chris Gayle’s room on the seventh floor of the Cinnamon Grand Hotel. Gayle has said the students were his guests and had been at the bar until around 1.45 a.m. last Thursday. Thereafter, he had taken them to his room for a drink. Other West Indian players Andre Russel, Fidel Edwards and Dwaynne Smith too had been present.

“This was utterly unnecessary. I called the IGP and gave him a dressing down immediately after I heard it at 5.45 a.m. Thursday,” President Mahinda Rajapaksa told foreign correspondents covering the ICC 20-20 cricket tournament last night.
He entertained them at a reception at “Temple Trees.” He said “I told the IGP that carrying out ICC rules is not your business. Police cannot do their work. There are so many brothels around here. Nothing is done,” he said in remarks made in English with occasional Sinhala interpolations. He said he had been told by the IGP that there were two women in Gayle’s room. “Eka eya minihage vedak ney (that’s that person’s business),” said President Rajapaksa.

An Indian journalist asked whether he would be there at today’s final encounter between Sri Lanka and the West Indies. He replied “I must think about it. The last two matches I went to, we lost.” He then turned to him and asked, “What do you think? Should I go?”The investigation came after the British High Commission in Colombo lodged a strong protest with the government and sought to know under what Sri Lankan law were the students arrested. President Mahinda Rajapaksa had ordered Police Chief N.K. Illangakoon to conduct a full investigation.

The British High Commission’s complaint was bolstered by a news release issued by the Police Public Relations Division which  stated that the three British university students had been “arrested”. Investigations so far have revealed that the ASP in question has put together a team of women police officers around 5 a.m. to carry out the arrests and take the students to the Kollupitiya Police. They were later released on police bail.

The ASP is said to have claimed that the International Cricket Council (ICC) had urged them not to allow any visitors to enter rooms of cricketers. ICC has been particularly careful of bookies contacting cricketers for match-fixing.A week ago, a Sri Lankan man was arrested when he entered an Australian cricketer’s room offering himself as an escort. He was charged with trespass and having pleaded guilty was fined and given a suspended sentence by court.

However, it has transpired that the ICC representative had said soon after the police raid that it was in order for the girls to remain in Gayle’s room since they were his guests. An aspect of the probe, a police source said yesterday, was to ascertain whether the police officer was angered by Gayle’s refusal to heed his request not to take the girls to the room and hence arranged the raid.

A senior police source, speaking on grounds of anonymity since they are debarred from talking to the media, said the MSD and other police personnel deployed for duty in the hotels were not tasked to execute ICC laws. “It is an internal matter between the ICC and the cricketers concerned if their rules have been violated,” the senior Police officer said. He said President Rajapaksa had taken a strong view of the incident since it reflected badly on Sri Lanka, particularly in view of a British travel advisory against visiting the country.
In another incident on Friday night, a New Zealander, distraught that the Australian team had lost to the West Indies on Friday night stripped himself  naked and jumped into the pool at the Taj Samudra Hotel. He was arrested and taken to the Kollupitiya Police. He was warned and later released.




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