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Dramatic escape amid Police-HRC clash
By Nalaka Nonis
An arrest, an exchange of words between police officers and Human Rights Commission representatives and a daring escape. These were the scenes that were captured on camera as they unfolded at the Mirihana police station yesterday.
The drama began when four of the six suspects arrested in connection with a driving licence forgery racket were brought in for questioning to the Special Crime Operation Unit of the Mirihana police. At that same moment two HRC female officers had walked in and requested that they be able to apeak to the suspects in privacy.

Inspector Sumith Perera who led the police team that made the arrest said, though they had objected, the HRC officers had insisted that they be allowed to question the suspects in a different room. "The two officials took the suspects to a separate room and asked us not to come in till they had finished questioning. Soon we heard that the suspects had got away after tricking the two HRC officers," he said.

The four suspects had escaped through the window of the room while the attention of the HRC officers had been drawn to something else. " It is really unfortunate that the four suspects had escaped. The arrest was made after days of observation. But all our efforts came to nothing because of the short-sighted act of two people," Mr. Perera said.

Police said they had been tracking down this forgery racket- with its mushrooming branches in various parts of the country-for a long time. During the raid two computers, a laser printer, a laptop, a multimedia set, headphones, mikes and several forged driving licences had been recovered police said. They said they had launched a hunt for the four escapees.

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