News
Police clueless almost two weeks after attack on Excise Comm. Gen’s house
Police investigating last week’s shooting at the home of the Excise Commissioner General H. Hapuarachchi said they had recorded the statements of 15 persons, but conceded that they were yet to make any breakthrough.
“We have recorded the statements of 15 persons, but none of them were in the category of a positive suspect,” a senior policeman said, adding that, further investigations had been handed over to the Colombo Crimes Division (CCD).
He further said that, soon after the shooting in the early hours of the morning on March 3, two special police teams had been deployed to track down those responsible, but after some 10 days, there was no breakthrough yet.
“Therefore, the CCD had been called in to carry out further investigations in this connection,” the official said.
Mr. Hapuaarachchi’s private residence located at Pamunuwa, Ja-ela, was the target of the attack, but no one was injured, although extensive damage was caused to his official vehicle.
Around the same day, unidentified gunmen also shot at the residence of the Excise Officer-in-Charge (OIC) of Special Operations and Detections, Rosmand Fernando.
Mr. Hapuarachchi said it is suspected that the attack on the OIC’s home was aimed at misleading the investigation.
Meanwhile, in a related development, a dusk to dawn police guard has been posted at Mr Hapuaarachchi’s residence following the incident. Earlier too, Mr. Hapuaarachchi had requested for a police guard.
Mr. Hapuaarachchi told the Sunday Times yesterday that he was anxiously waiting for the police to make a breakthrough in the probe, as he was baffled by the unprovoked attack on his home.
“For the moment, I am not taking any chances and towards this end the Excise Department has provided guards to escort me from my home to office and back on a daily basis,” he said.
He added that, since the shooting, there has been no further developments or incidents and that, he had not received any threats from any quarter.
“It is now very clear that whoever was behind the shooting was trying to scare me away from my official work and related duties,” he added.
The incident took place at the time Mr. Happuaarachchi had launched a random audit check on 10 distillery companies for alleged tax evasion and other frauds.